Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab, best known for its antivirus products, will no longer be able to run ads on Twitter, the micro-blogging network has confirmed. Twitter has decided to ban ads from Kaspersky Lab as the latter’s business model conflicts with advertising rules, according to Twitter, and also cites claims of the U.S. government that Kaspersky has links to Russian intelligence agencies, a charge that Kaspersky has denied vehemently many times in the past.
It has long been claimed by U.S. agencies that Kaspersky Lab has close links to Moscow’s intelligence agencies and that its software might actually aid Russia’s spying efforts. The Trump administration has already banned Kaspersky’s products from being used on U.S. government networks.
That’s not a charge that the company has taken lightly, though, and it has even offered to show its code so that independent experts can look at it and decide whether or not any exploits have been left in it for Russian intelligence agencies.
Kaspersky Lab co-founder Eugene Kaspersky disclosed the ban earlier this week adding that the company was first told about this ban back in January. Twitter has since confirmed the ban in an email to Reuters.
Kaspersky added in the blog post that he was taken by surprise when Twitter decided to ban the company from running ads. “We haven’t violated any written – or unwritten – rules, and our business model is quite simply the same template business model that’s used throughout the whole cybersecurity industry: We provide users with products and services, and they pay us for them,” he added.
“This decision is based on our determination that Kaspersky Lab operates using a business model that inherently conflicts with acceptable Twitter Ads business practices,” the microblogging network said in its statement.