By Elizabeth Culliford
(Reuters) – Russia has blocked Facebook, the country’s communications regulator said on Friday, in response to what it called restrictions on accessing Russian media on the platform.
Roskomnadzor, the country’s industry regulator, said there had been 26 cases of discrimination against Russian media by Facebook since October 2020, with access to state-backed outlets such as RT and the RIA news agency restricted.
Meta Platforms, which owns Facebook, did not immediately comment.
Meta said earlier this week that it had restricted access to Russian media RT and Sputnik across the European Union and was globally downgrading the content of the Facebook pages and Instagram accounts of Russian state-controlled outlets, as well as posts linking to these. media on Facebook.
Last week, Moscow announced a partial limitation on Facebook, a move the company said came after it refused a government request to stop independent verification of the content of several Russian state-owned media outlets. On Saturday, Twitter also said its service was being restricted to some Russian users.
Big tech and social media companies faced pressure to respond to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last week, in an offensive that led to economic sanctions against Moscow by governments around the world. Russia classifies its actions in Ukraine as a “special operation”.
Roskomnadzor said Meta has restricted access to the accounts of state-backed news outlets in recent days, listing RT, Sputnik, the RIA news agency, Defense Ministry TV Zvezda, and the websites gazeta.ru and slow.ru.
According to the agency, such restrictions violate key principles of freedom of information and Russian internet users’ unhindered access to local media.
((Reporting by Elizabeth Culliford))
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