A move by Twitter to delete several Russian accounts satirizing Kremlin politics has sparked protests and raised questions about where the technology company stands on issues of free speech.

In recent days, Twitter users noticed the suspension of accounts such as @Russia__Not and @RusEmbassyNot, as well as @SovietSergey and @AmbYakovenkoNot. The latter two used to satirize Russia's foreign minister and the country's ambassador to the United Kingdom, respectively.

But the biggest outcry came when, on Tuesday, Twitter suspended @DarthPutinKGB, a widely popular account that had attracted almost 60,000 followers with its poignant, witty stabs at Russian President Vladimir Putin. Devoted fans were outspoken in their objections, some of them using the #NoGulagForDarthPutinKGB hashtag.

Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves was among those protesting Twitter's decision, and like other outraged followers, he made sure to tag one of the social media company's own accounts in the hope of getting a reaction — to no avail. When asked via email to comment on the issue, Twitter's communications department also failed to respond.

The Moscow Times spoke to the man who has been running the @DarthPutinKGB account since 2013. He provided proof that he did indeed have access to the account, and said Twitter didn't bother contacting him before taking it offline. Instead, he found out about the suspension when a follower noticed something was wrong, and tweeted about it. "I thought, so the Russian Foreign Ministry did get me shot down after all," he said.

He believes the recent spate of suspensions is related to an incident in late May. Back then, Euronews had mistakenly claimed that a tweet by the @SovietSergey parody account came from the real Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova lashed out at the station after that — a move that, to the man behind @DarthPutinKGB, shows how thin-skinned officials have become.

"I think that they cannot take being laughed at," he said. "They know all this b******* about 'those are not Russian troops' and 'Euromaidan was a CIA coup' is just that — b********. So given that they throw millions at the message and still get mistaken for a parody, it's a tough situation."

He believes that people in charge of the Kremlin's message approached Twitter to have the accounts shut down so they could show some results, rather than have the budget for Russian government spin taken away from them for failing to do their job.

Meanwhile, @SovietSergey — or rather, the man behind that account — said the recent suspensions were part of a worrying trend, and called on Twitter to think twice before doing the Russian government's bidding: "Big technology companies should not bow down to demands of authoritarian regimes, they are doing a huge disservice to the people, he said.

"For example, Twitter has played a big part in revolutions — Iran, Egypt, Tunisia, Ukraine. If the authorities are given control over social media, the consequences will be dire."

Twitter's guidelines list three reasons why accounts may be suspended. They include posting spam and suspicions that the account may have been hacked. Since neither of these seem to apply, it's most likely @DarthPutinKGB was considered to be in violation of a third point: Twitter's rules on impersonation and parody.

If that is the case, though, it would appear Twitter staff have not paid much attention to what those criteria actually say. In fact, they explicitly state that "users are allowed to create parody (...) accounts on Twitter“ as long as they follow two requirements: The account name must not be the same as the name of the person parodied, and the bio (the short statement users can make about themselves) has to include "a word such as 'parody,' 'fake,' 'fan,' or 'commentary,' and be done so in a way that would be understood by the intended audience.“

Screenshots from a cached version of the account show that @DarthPutinKGB fulfilled these conditions: the difference between an account called @VladimirPutin and one referencing both Star Wars and the former Soviet secret service is obvious. The bio also includes the sentence "I serve tea to those that call this parody.“ And on top of that, a link from the profile leads straight to the author's blog, headlined "Darth Putin's Blog – bringing you the Soviet Reunion.“

Meanwhile, while @DarthPutinKGB is dead, there's a chance he may rise again under a different name. Its creator has lodged an appeal with Twitter, arguing that nobody could interpret the account as anything but parody.

In its reply, the company conceded it might reinstate the account if it gets a new name — an option the man behind Putin's most popular alter ego is now considering: "I probably have to appear as 'Depressed Putin' or something" — even though he finds Twitter's decision to suspend the account in the first place deeply disturbing:

"All of the world's repressive regimes are aware that spontaneous, organic protests have been organized through Twitter. (...) If a company like Twitter can be told 'kill these accounts now' and they do it, whose side are they on?"

UPDATE: Early on Wednesday afternoon, the @SovietSergey account was reinstated by Twitter. @DarthPutinKGB followed several hours later.