Russian authorities said they are slowing down the speed of uploading videos and photos to Twitter for failing to remove illegal content from its platform, BBC reported Thursday.

The Federal Communications, Information Technology, and Mass Communications Oversight Service, also known as Roskomnadzor, Wednesday announced it was throttling the speed of the social media platform.

The regulator said it was implementing the measures to keep the country's people safe and that it may have to take down the social media site completely if it fails to respond accordingly. 

Roskomnadzor deputy director Vadim Subbotin said in televised remarks that Twitter is the only social media company that has "openly ignored the Russian authorities' demand to remove its banned content."

Roskomnadzor is accusing Twitter of failing to remove 3,000 posts related to illicit drugs, pornography and even suicide, according to BBC.

Based on a statement posted on Roskomnadzor's website, 100% of mobile gadgets and half of stationary devices using Twitter would be subjected to a disruption in service in a bid to "protect Russian citizens," VOA reported.

Moscow in recent months has placed Western tech companies like Twitter and Facebook under increasing pressure for their failure to contain calls to participate in anti-government protests, especially in the wake of demonstrations supporting Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny.

Meanwhile, the Russian government's attempt to throttle Twitter appears to backfire.

Doug Madory, Kentik chief of Internet Analysis, observed Thursday morning that traffic to Russian state internet service provider Rostelecom dropped significantly following the government regulator's attempt to slow down Twitter.

Several government websites suddenly went offline Wednesday, including Kremlin.ru, the government's official website, government.ru and the economics ministry.

As this developed, several pro-Kremlin commentators suggested the disruptions may have been the result of a U.S. cyber-attack.

Russian officials then admitted the problem was domestic.