Russia's communications regulator on Friday said it had blocked Facebook in response to what it said were restrictions of access to Russian media on its platform, Reuters reported.
The regulator, Roskomnadzor, said there had been 26 cases of discrimination against Russian media by Facebook since October 2020, with access restricted to state-backed channels like RT and the RIA news agency.
"On March 4, 2022 it was decided to block access to Facebook (belonging to the company Meta) on the territory of the Russian Federation," it said.
Nick Clegg, president of global affairs at Facebook’s parent, Meta, responded to Russia’s move and said that blocking the platform would cut off “millions of ordinary Russians” from reliable information, deprive them of communications with friends and family and mean they were “silenced from speaking out”.
“We will continue to do everything we can to restore our services so they remain available to people to safely and securely express themselves and organize for action,” he added.
Earlier this week, Meta announced that it would be restricting access to Russian state-controlled media in Europe, including RT and Sputnik, following “requests from a number of governments and the EU.”
Meta added that content from Russia state-controlled media would be demoted on Facebook and Instagram, and that links from those outlets would be labeled in order to give “context” to people who do access them.
Nathaniel Gleicher, Meta’s head of security policy, also announced that Facebook would allow Ukrainian users to lock their social media profiles for added security.
Several websites have taken action against Russia in recent days, in response to its invasion of Ukraine.
Music streaming giant Spotify announced on Wednesday it is closing its Russia-based office and removing Russian state-sponsored content from its service.
Twitter began taking steps against Russian content on Tuesday, announcing that it would be labeling all websites affiliated with the Russian government and reducing the circulation of their content. According to Yoel Roth, head of site integrity at Twitter, over 45,000 tweets a day share links to Russian state-affiliated media outlets. These will now be stamped with “Stay Informed” labels.
Over at Google, its Google Maps service is no longer showing live traffic data in Ukraine out of concern that it could be used by Russia to identify troop movements. Google Pay has stopped working in Russia, and YouTube has announced that it will begin blocking channels that have links to Russia state-backed media outlets across Europe, due to their “spread of disinformation.” Google’s Alphabet has begun blocking mobile apps connected to RT and Sputnik media from its Play store.
Apple is no longer selling its products in Russia and has removed RT’s and Sputnik’s apps from its App Store outside Russia. Following in Google’s footsteps it has disabled traffic incidents on its Apple Maps in Ukraine.
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)