Russia-Ukraine live updates: U.S. will sanction Putin as Russian forces close in on Kyiv
Russia on Friday announced a “partial restriction” of access to Facebook after reporting the social media network had taken action against the accounts of several Kremlin-backed media outlets over their coverage of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Russian Internet regulator Roskomnadzor demanded that Facebook lift the blocks placed Thursday on several outlets, including state news agency RIA Novosti and state TV network Zvezda, affiliated with the Ministry of Defense.
Roskomnadzor explained its move as “measures to protect the Russian media,” and along with the Russian Foreign Ministry and the Prosecutor General’s Office, accused Facebook of “violation of fundamental human rights and freedoms, as well as the rights and freedoms of Russian nationals.”
The “partial restriction” of Facebook takes immediate effect. However, the regulator did not provide details on what the measures would include.
Zvezda said Facebook imposed restrictions on its page after the posting of two news articles, “Russian Defense Ministry: Air Defense Forces of Ukraine Suppressed” and “The Russian Defense Ministry said that the military border services of Ukraine are not resisting.” The network said the restrictions relate to how Zvezda articles appeared, lower in the Facebook feeds so that fewer users can see them.
Facebook’s head of global affairs and communications, Nick Clegg tweeted that Russian authorities restricted the use of the company’s services, which include Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, after the company had labeled and fact-checked content from four state-owned media organizations.
The Russian government, Clegg wrote, had asked the company to stop fact-checking, and the company refused, so the government retaliated by restricting access.
Facebook executives have long known this was a risk, said Brian Fishman, the former Facebook executive and counterterrorism expert in charge of preventing dangerous organizations from proliferating on the service.
Last year, Roskomnadzor slowed down the speed of Twitter, accusing the U.S. social media company of failing to remove what it considered banned content, leading to issues with accessing video and photos posted on the network.
Facebook, Twitter and other Western social media platforms are widely used by the Kremlin’s opponents, including Alexei Navalny, who has been jailed since January 2021 upon returning to Russia after treatment for a poisoning attack in Siberia.
For several years, Russia and its Internet regulator tried to pressure foreign tech firms to comply with its increasingly strict rules on what it deems illegal content — particularly apps, websites, posts and videos related to demonstrations organized by Navalny or his network, which has been labeled as extremist in the country.
Google was fined nearly $100 million for these violations in December, the largest such penalty yet in the country.
