Russia Moves To Partially Restrict Access To Facebook

Following the crisis between Ukraine and Russia,  Russia’s media regulator has moved to restrict access to Facebook, as well as official accounts” of four Russian media outlets that are state-owned or state-affiliated.

These are Zvezda TV channel, RIA Novosti news agency, Lenta.ru and Gazeta.ru.

The country’s regulator, Roskomnadzor, in a statement,  said Facebook’s actions violated federal law and that its owner, Meta, ignored a request from the agency to remove the restrictions.

“In accordance with the decision of the General Prosecutor’s Office, starting from Feb. 25, partial access restrictions are being imposed by Roskomnadzor on the Facebook social network,” the regulator said in a statement.

Roskomnadzor said its actions followed an agreement by the Prosecutor General’s Office and Ministry of Foreign Affairs “to recognize the social network Facebook as involved in the violation of fundamental human rights and freedoms, as well as the rights and freedoms of Russian citizens.”

Reacting to this in a statement on Twitter, Meta’s head of global affairs, Nick Clegg, said: “Yesterday, Russian authorities ordered us to stop the independent fact-checking and labelling of content posted to Facebook by four Russian state-owned media organizations. We refused. As a result, they have announced they will be restricting the use of our services.

“Ordinary Russians are using our apps to express themselves and organize for action. We want them to continue to make their voices heard, share what’s happening, and organize through Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger.”

Aljazeera reports that Russian forces have been moving closer to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, as bloody battles took place nationwide on the second day of the Russian attack on its neighbour.

Investors King reports that over 50,000 Ukrainians have fled to other countries since the invasion began, while tens of thousands more have also been internally displaced

So far, more than 1,700 people in 54 Russian cities were arrested on Thursday, with at least 957 of them in the capital.