Revenge, Russia Restricts Facebook Access To Its Country Because Of This!

Facebook (Photo: Deeksha Pahariya/Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Russia's telecommunications regulator Roskomnadzor claims Facebook has restricted the official accounts of four state-owned or affiliated Russian media outlets, such as TV channel Zvezda, RIA Novosti news agency, Lenta.ru and Gazeta.ru.

In retaliation, Russia said it would partially restrict access to Facebook after the platform had blocked access to the official accounts of Russian media outlets.

He also demands an explanation and asks Meta to remove the act. But the company refused, and then regulators decided to restrict access to Facebook, a move that Roskomnadzor said was legal.

His actions, said Roskomnadzor, have followed the agreement of the Attorney General's Office and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to admit the social network Facebook is involved in violations of human rights and freedoms, as well as the rights and freedoms of Russian citizens.

Citing CNBC International, Saturday, February 26, Roskomnadzor claims to have recorded 23 cases of censorship of Russian media and Internet resources by Facebook since October 2020.

Meta's vice president of global affairs Nick Clegg said on his official Twitter that Russian authorities had ordered the company last Thursday to stop fact-checking and labeling content on Facebook posted by state-owned media outlets. When Meta refused, Russia announced restrictions on its services.

Ordinary Russians are using @Meta's apps to express themselves and organize for action. We want them to continue to make their voices heard, share what’s happening, and organize through Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger. pic.twitter.com/FjTovgslCe

— Nick Clegg (@nickclegg) February 25, 2022

Clegg and Meta hope that Russians will use the Meta app to express themselves and organize actions. And want them to continue to make their voices heard, share what's going on, manage via Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger.

As previously reported, Meta has recently taken a new step to protect user accounts in Ukraine. The company enabled the profile lock feature for people in the country, and set up a Special Operations Center to closely monitor what happens there.

The profile lock feature is meant to give users one-click access to additional privacy and security features, “When their profile is locked, people who are not friends can't download or share their profile picture or view posts on their timeline,” says Head of Meta Security Policy, Nathaniel Gleicher.

While the Special Operations Center said Gleicher, it is staffed by experts (including native speakers) so the security team can monitor the situation closely and act as quickly as possible.

The move came as Russia's invasion of Ukraine escalated on Thursday, raising concerns about the spread of disinformation on social media.

As quoted from NBC News, it is known that Russia is also trying to spread disinformation and propaganda on the internet and through foreign and domestic media about its invasion of Ukraine which started a few weeks ago, and is expected to escalate now that the conflict has started.