Access to Facebook was blocked on Russian territory as of Thursday. Russia’s media regulator, Roskomnadzor, today completely blocked access in response to restricting access to national media. The social network responded by stating that it will “do everything possible to remain available.” On March 4, 2022, it was decided to block access to the Facebook network (owned by Media Platforms, Inc.) on the territory of Russia,” said a message from the agency released by Telegram.
According to the state agency, since October 2020 there have been 26 cases of discrimination against Russian media and national information resources by Facebook. The regulator accused the company, owned by the US group Meta, of “discrimination” against Russian media such as Zvezda television (of the Ministry of Defense), the Ria Novosti press agency, the international network RT or the portals Lenta.ru and Gazeta.ru.La state agency warned that such discrimination against Russian media constitutes a violation of local legislation and the right of citizens to free access to information provided by Russian media in the resources of the network and on other platforms, reported the news agencies AFP and Sputnik.” Soon millions of Russians will be disconnected from reliable information, deprived of everyday ways to connect with family and friends and silenced from demonstrating,” said Nick Clegg, president of Global Affairs at Meta. We will do everything possible to restore our services so that they remain available and people can organize safely,” he added in a statement uploaded to Twitter.Last Wednesday, the European Union banned the dissemination of any content from Russian media RT and Sputnik due to the Russian military operation in Ukraine. That same day, the American company Meta, formerly Facebook, disconnected its applications from all the resources of Rossiya Segodnya, Sputnik’s parent company. The RT TV channel was also blocked by Instagram and Facebook in 27 countries in Europe. Previously, Google decided to block YouTube channels linked to RT and the Sputnik agency in Europe.Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov described as unexpected the sanctions that the West imposed on journalists, as well as Russian athletes and cultural representatives.
