Russia limits access to Facebook amid invasion of Ukraine
February 26, 2022, 7:26 am

Russia limits access to Facebook amid invasion of Ukraine

Facebook-Social Media-Blue platform/Pixabay

The BBC reported, Russia has limited access to Facebook over the platform's stance on the accounts of several Moscow-backed news outlets amid the invasion of Ukraine.

It said that Russia's communications regulator Roskomnadzor accused the network of "censorship" and violating "the rights and freedoms of Russian citizens".

Facebook said it had refused to stop fact-checking and labelling content from state-owned news organisations.

The move came a day after Russia launched its attack on Ukraine.

It is unclear what the regulator restrictions mean, or to what extent Facebook's parent company Meta's other platforms - WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Instagram - are affected.

The regulator had demanded Facebook lift the restrictions it placed on Thursday on state news agency RIA, state TV channel Zvezda, and pro-Kremlin news sites Lenta.Ru and Gazeta.Ru. It said that Meta had "ignored" these requests.

Onion- or helmet-shaped domes in Moscow, Russia (File photo: Pixabay)

Sir Nick Clegg, vice-president of global affairs at Meta, said Russian authorities "ordered us to stop the independent fact-checking and labelling" the outlets' content. "We refused," he said.

But Sir Nick made clear he wanted Russians to continue to use Meta's platforms.

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He said: "Ordinary Russians are using our apps to express themselves and organise for action," and the company wants "them to continue to make their voices heard".

Many state-owned media outlets in Russia have painted a largely positive picture of Russian military advances in Ukraine, calling the invasion a "special military operation" that had been forced on Moscow.

On Thursday Meta said it had set up a "special operations centre" to monitor content about the conflict in Ukraine.

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The BBC said, Russia has its own Facebook equivalents, VK and Odnoklassniki, but Facebook is also popular in the country - as is Meta-owned Instagram.

On Friday, US Senator Mark Warner said Facebook, YouTube and other social media services had "a clear responsibility to ensure that your products are not used to facilitate human rights abuses".

Meta, has been under pressure to label misinformation - and has been working with outside fact-checkers, including Reuters.

Moscow has also increased pressure on domestic media, threatening to block reports that contain what it describes as "false information" regarding its invasion of Ukraine.

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Twitter also told the BBC that its safety and integrity teams were "disrupting attempts to amplify false and misleading information and to advance the speed and scale of our enforcement".

Source: BBC

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Upon arriving to participate in the summit of the European Political Community, which includes around forty heads of state in Budapest, he said, "I look forward to sitting with the elected U.S. president and seeing how we will collectively ensure we meet challenges, including the threats from Russia and North Korea." He also noted that the strengthening of ties between Russia and North Korea poses a threat to the United States as well, according to reports from Agence France-Presse.

Before Trump's victory, Rutte expressed confidence that a united Washington would remain part of the defensive alliance, even if Trump became the 47th president of the United States. In an interview with German public broadcaster ZDF last Monday night, he stated that both Republicans and Democrats understand that NATO serves not only the security of Europe but also that of America. He added that both candidates are aware that the security of the United States is closely tied to NATO.

On Wednesday, NATO congratulated Trump on his victory but did not address the Ukrainian issue.

It is noteworthy that the relationship between the elected U.S. president and the defense alliance was not the best during his first term in the White House. Trump criticized NATO member states multiple times and even hinted at withdrawing from the alliance unless they increased their financial contributions.

Additionally, the issue of the Russian-Ukrainian war is one of the matters that complicate relations between the two sides, especially since Trump has repeatedly stated that he can end this ongoing conflict, which began in 2022, quickly. He implied that he had a peace plan between Kyiv and Moscow, while his vice president, JD Vance, revealed aspects of that plan, which stipulated Ukraine's commitment not to join NATO, thereby sending reassuring signals to the Russians.

Furthermore, many NATO member states in Europe fear that Trump might halt military aid to Ukraine after he previously criticized the U.S. for pouring funds into supporting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.