Since the beginning of Russia’s offensive in Ukraine, the European Union announced the veto on access to the web pages of different Russian media, such as the television network ‘Russian Today’ and ‘Sputnik‘, which are included in the package of sanctions that Brussels applied to the Kremlin.
In addition to banning the broadcast of publicly funded Russian television networks, the 27 Member States announced the closure of airspace to Russia. In the same way, Russia also proceeded to restrict the airspace to the countries of the Unionincluding Spain, although the blockades by the Kremlin did not stop there, since they have also moved to the field of telecommunications and the media.
In this way Russia, through its telecommunications regulator Roskomnadzorhas chosen block access to two of the main social networks worldwide such as Facebook and Twitter. A decision that extends to the entire Russian territory, in response to what Moscow considered as “discrimination” in its media.
A decision that they make definitively. In the past week, the Russian country accused the company chaired by Mark Zuckerberg to restrict access to different media outlets in the country, and limit the news broadcast by them. The affected media, according to the Russian government, were the Zvezda television channel, the RIA Novosti news agency and the Internet sites Lenta.ru and Gazeta.ru.
On the other hand, the regulator expressed in its statement that since 2020 it has registered a total of 23 cases of censorship of this type of Russian media and Internet resources by Facebook. “On February 25, the General Prosecutor’s Office, in agreement with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, decided to recognize the social network Facebook as involved in the violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms, as well as the rights and freedoms of Russian citizens,” ruled the regulatory body.
Western media banned by the Kremlin
The Kremlin’s bans not only apply to the social networks most used by users, but also apply to some of the most influential Western media, including the BBC, Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty, Meduza and Deutsche Welle. From Moscow they argue that the reason for this veto is due to the disclosure of information that they consider to be “false”.
On the other hand, the spread of false information shall be punished with penalties of prison up to three years and a fine of about 300 thousand rubles, that is, about 2,500 thousand euros, although depending on the degree of severity, these can reach 1.5 million Russian rubles, which would amount to about 12,000 euros.
Regarding Facebook Nick Cleggresponsible of global Meta affairs and communications, expressed on his Twitter account the consequences that this decision will have for millions of Russian users. “Millions of Russian citizens will be deprived of reliable informationand to stay in touch with your family and friends. We will continue to work to try to re-establish service so that it remains safely available to people.”
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