The UK Foreign Office is apparently so concerned with protecting its brand that it asked Twitter to suspend an RT account which reports what London diplomats had to say about Russia back in 1917 as part of a historical reenactment.
The account in question was created as part of RT’s 1917LIVE project, which gives people the chance to experience the atmosphere of the Russian Empire as it was undergoing dramatic changes and eventual collapse a century ago.
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Dozens of interconnected accounts named after historical figures like then-Prime Minister Alexander Kerensky or Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin tweet comments on the events of one hundred years ago.
The account @BritishEmb1917 spoke with the voice of the British diplomatic mission of the time. It was described as “the official Twitter account of the United Kingdom in the Russian Empire” and carried the official crest of the office.
Apparently, the initiative did not sit well with Britain’s current Foreign and Commonwealth Office, as it reported the account to Twitter as an imposter.
“We alerted Twitter to an unofficial account that was using HMG branding without consent,” an FCO spokesman said, The Guardian reports.
RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan reacted to the development by asking: “Whatever happened to my beloved English humor?”
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange also drew attention to the suspension on his Twitter feed. “UK government gets Twitter to suspend RT account showing what the FCO was saying in 1917 about Russian revolution,” he tweeted.
Some historical figures of 1917LIVE offered their opinions of what had transpired. ‘General Brusilov’ remarked that the suspension called into question the UK’s commitment to its Entente ally Russia, especially after London rejected asylum to members of the deposed Romanov family. Aleksey Brusilov was a World War I commander in the Russian Army who was credited with one of the greatest feats in the war – the Brusilov offensive.
‘General Kornilov’ (another prominent Russian military commander and later a leader of the counter-Bolshevik ‘White Movement’) suggested that Twitter should instead suspend all Bolshevik propaganda and Vladimir Lenin himself. ‘Bolshevik Mikhailov’ praised Twitter for banning an “account of imperialist UK” while the ‘German Kaizer’ said the Second Reich’s victory over Russia on social media will be followed by a victory on the battlefield.
On a more serious note, head of RT Social Media Operations Ivor Crotty said the move by the FCO “to subvert the project, without ever contacting its creators” was “extremely disappointing.”
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“When we created the accounts for 1917LIVE, including the 1917 UK Embassy in Russia account, they were white-listed, approved and given official status by Twitter,” he said, adding that the British Embassy was informed of the project beforehand and “showed no interest,” neither supporting it nor objecting to it.
“To take undisclosed action behind closed doors and seek the removal of an innocent Twitter account clearly recounting historic circumstances, are acts that are difficult to interpret as anything other than elitism and disdain for innovative attempts to build bridges, digital or otherwise,” Crotty said.
“We should all be disappointed by this – Russians, Brits and all with an interest in History.”
Twitter suspended the account on August 7, and neither the microblogging service nor the British Embassy in Moscow have so far provided the 1917LIVE project team comments on the situation.
The historical project was launched in February and has followed those turbulent times in Russia’s history, including the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II and the failed attempts of the provisional government to stabilize the situation, with the Bolshevik uprising looming two months ahead.
1917LIVE has held online Q&A sessions with historical figures of the revolutionary year, livestreamed from fugitive Lenin’s hideout, and showed how children perceived the historic events as they happened.
The fictional Russian Telegraph newspaper, which serves as the Twitter hub of the project, has almost 50,000 followers, while the entire community of 1917LIVE accounts has reached over 100,000. The project has drawn global attention from historians, political scientists, media professionals, and history buffs.
