Facebook services to be restricted in Russia after censorship claims.
Meta Inc faces another case of disapproval from the Russian government after authorities announced the “partial restriction” of access to Facebook and its services after the social media network was accused of “censoring” the accounts of several Kremlin-backed media organizations after Russian military forces invaded Ukraine.
The state communications and internet regulatory agency, Roskomnadzor, declared that they would implement the measures on Facebook after the firm had ignored its demands to lift restrictions on four Russian state-linked media outlets, RIA Novosti news agency, the state TV channel Zvezda, and pro-Russian news sites Lenta.ru and Gazeta.ru.
“On February 24, Roskomnadzor sent requests to the administration of Meta Platforms, Inc. remove the restrictions imposed by the social network Facebook on Russian media and explain the reason for their introduction,” Roskomnadzor wrote, adding that Facebook did not comply to its requests.
The agency said that the partial restrictions would start on Friday without specifying details on what precisely the measures are. The regulatory body described the move as “measures to protect Russian media.” It said Russia’s foreign ministry and the prosecutor general’s office found Facebook “complicit in the violation of fundamental human rights and freedoms, as well as the rights and freedoms of Russian nationals.”
This comes at a time where crackdowns on domestic media outlets are at an all-time high, with the Russian government threatening to block reports that contain what it describes as “false information” regarding its military operations in Ukraine. While Meta Inc did not comment, Nick
Clegg, Meta’s head of global affairs, responded in a tweet that the firm had established a “special operations center” to deal with information on the conflict that incited violence or used hate speech. Later in a tweet, he posted an official statement stating that Russian authorities had ordered them to stop the “independent fact-checking and labeling of content posted to Facebook by four Russian state-owned media organizations.” Their refusal to the demands resulted in the restricted restrictions use of their services.
The situation in Ukraine is devastating. Our teams at Meta have implemented a number of measures to keep our platforms and our users in the region as safe as we can. This is a fast moving situation and our teams remain on high alert. pic.twitter.com/8wFgx7muKG
— Nick Clegg (@nickclegg) February 25, 2022
Edited by-Subbuthai Padma
Published by- Radhika. N
