Russia’s media regulator said on Friday it would block access to Meta-owned Facebook in the country as it escalates pressure on media and technology platforms amid its invasion of Ukraine.
The regulator said Facebook had violated federal law by restricting access to the accounts of several state-related media outlets, according to a translated version of the statement. This move marks an escalation of previous restrictions that Russia has placed on Facebook.
Last week, the agency placed partial restrictions on Facebook for the alleged violation.
At the time, Meta’s vice president of global affairs, Nick Clegg, said Russian authorities have ordered the platform to stop fact-checking and labeling content posted on Facebook by government publications such as RT and Sputnik. Meta refused the application, he said.
The regulator announced on Friday that it had detected 26 “cases of discrimination against Russian media and Facebook information resources” since October 2020.
“Soon, millions of ordinary Russians will be cut off from reliable information, deprived of their daily ways of connecting with family and friends, and silenced from speaking,” Clegg said. said in a statement on Twitter in response to the blockade on Friday. “We will continue to do our utmost to restore our services so that they remain accessible to people so that they can express themselves safely and securely and get organized.”
Russia is escalating its repression against both traditional and social media as its war with Ukraine continues. Some companies, such as Twitter and Google, have pledged to label state media and stop advertising in Russia. Meanwhile, a new law that would allow Russian authorities to imprison anyone who spreads “fake” news about its military has prompted the BBC to suspend the work of its journalists in the country.
Independent service GlobalCheck seems to have shown on Friday afternoon that Twitter is not available to Russian ISPs. The website of the Russian media regulator has not yet shown new actions against Twitter. The company did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
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