Edit 3/4/22 2:55 PM: Bloomberg is reporting that Twitter access has also been blocked in Russia.
What you need to know
- Russia’s Roskomnadzor has banned Facebook from the country.
- 70 million Russian citizens actively use Facebook every month and will no longer be able to access the platform.
- The move follows Meta’s ban of Russian state-controlled media from its own platform.
Russian Facebook users all across the country are suddenly finding that they are no longer able to access the social platform as of March 4, 2022, as a result of the platform being banned in the country. Roskomnadzor — that’s Russia’s Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media — initiated the ban on the platform citing violations by Meta.
Specifically, Roskomnadzor says Meta is guilty of “discrimination against Russian media and information resources.” The move by the Russian government follows moves from platforms like Facebook and Google News to ban Russian state-controlled media in an effort to curb propaganda from the Russian government.
Meta’s President of Global Affairs, Nick Clegg, issued this statement about Facebook being banned:
“Soon, millions of ordinary Russians will find themselves cut off from reliable information, deprived of their everyday ways of connecting with family and friends and 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.”
Russia’s government has moved to silence any opposition to its invasion of Ukraine over the past week, now working to ban any platform that disallows its own state-controlled media from operating. Russia’s Roskomnadzor is responsible for monitoring and censoring “electronic media, mass communications, information technology and telecommunications, supervising compliance with the law, protecting the confidentiality of personal data being processed, and organizing the work of the radio-frequency service” according to the official website.
Elsewhere, outlets like RT and Sputnik News have been banned throughout the European Union, although they are still accessible on Google, Facebook, and other social platforms throughout the rest of the world.
