Russia Bans Facebook, Charging It With Discriminating Against Russian Media

It was updated on Mar 4, 2022, at 02:43pm.

According to multiple reports, Russian regulators blocked access to Facebook on Friday in response to the platform limiting access to Russian media.

Millions of ordinary Russians will soon find themselves cut off from reliable information as a result of the ban, according to Meta spokesman Nick Clegg.

The parent company of Facebook restricted access to Russian state-owned media outlets after the country invaded Ukraine.

Since the invasion began last week, U.S. based tech giants have taken action against Russian state media outlets.

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 has moved quickly to shut down independent media outlets who question the state's false narrative that the invasion was done to combat Ukrainian aggression, while threatening those who spread what it considers fake information. Russian state-owned media outlets that have long operated in the West have largely been blocked for publishing misinformation about the war. The Russian government has been running a propaganda campaign about Ukraine for a long time, with outlets such as RT making false claims about Ukrainians planning to attack Russian speakers in the Donbass region. More than 100 employees of the Russian-backed cable news network were laid off Thursday after it abruptly shut down.

Surprising Fact

There had been calls for Meta to pull Facebook out of Russia on its own as a form of penalty on the country, but there were concerns that such a move would only further limit Russians' ability to access non-state information.

There is a growing list of companies cutting ties with Russia.

Should tech stay in Russia? The New York Times.