Roskomnadzor, the Russian media regulator, ordered on March 4, 2022, the blocking of Facebook in Russia and the restriction of access to Twitter. According to them, Mark Zuckerberg’s social network discriminates against Russian media such as the Ministry of Defense television Zvezda, the Ria Novosti news agency, the international channel RT or the Lenta.ru and Gazeta.ru sites.
Russian media regulator blocks Facebook across Russia
A week ago, the Kermlin had already announced that it would limit access and slow down the functioning of Facebook, which had restricted the functionality of Russian media accounts mentioned above. Thus, access to Facebook had already been slowed down in the country since the start of the war in Ukraine. According to its leaders, the social network had been asked to stop factchecking and to label ” state media some of these accounts.
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Facebook did not respond favorably to this request. Thus, Roskomnadzor applied the threats of the Russian government, considering that these restrictions ” violate key principles of free dissemination of information and unhindered access of Russian users to Russian media on foreign internet platforms “. She adds that ” Since October 2020, 26 cases of discrimination against Russian media and information resources by Facebook have been registered “.
For its part, Meta, Facebook’s parent company, confirmed the Russian government’s decision to block access to its social network throughout the country. Nick Clegg, President of International Affairs of the American group, deplores that ” millions of ordinary Russians will soon be deprived of reliable information “.
Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, several companies have decided to cut their ties with Russia: this is the case of Apple and many companies in Silicon Valley.
A law enacted in Russia criminalizes the dissemination of “Fake News”
After Facebook, Twitter is also in the sights of Roskomnadzor. The regulator has begun to restrict access to the social network. This decision is based on a request from the Russian prosecutor’s office dated February 24, the day the Russian invasion of Ukraine began. The Russian regulator had already been slowing down the operation of Twitter since last year. He criticized Twitter for not removing content deemed illegal, including that related to the opposition.
On the evening of Friday March 4, Vladimir Putin also signed the law criminalizing the dissemination “ misleading information about the actions of the Russian Armed Forces in military operations in Ukraine. The text of the law was adopted by the Russian deputies, which implies that the Russian and international journalists who do not take up the official dispatches will be considered as transmitters of infox”.