Facebook has stopped recommending Russian state media globally

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge

Meta has stopped recommending Russian state media to all users of Facebook and soon will also recommend Russian state media to users of the photo-sharing app, as the country's ongoing invasion of Ukraine wages on.

In a call with reporters on Tuesday, Meta executives said that Russian media had been demoted in the main Facebook Feed and that it was no longer being recommended on the social network. The executives said that both apps will be labeled with links to outlets under the influence of the Russian government.

The Russian government last week began to restrict internet access to Facebook and other social media sites because they refused to stop fact-checking state-owned media. Meta has blocked Russian state media outlets in the EU and Ukraine, removed a Russian misinformation campaign about the war, and blocked Russian state media from making money on their platform.

It is the first time that Meta has taken such action against a state-controlled media anywhere.

On the call with reporters, Meta's president of global affairs, Nick Clegg, said that Russia's move to throttle its service through local internet service providers had made it difficult to watch videos on Facebook and Instagram. We don't know.