JAKARTA – Russian communications regulator Roskomnadzor announced Friday that it has blocked the social media platforms Facebook, owned by Meta Platforms Inc and Twitter. This decision was made in response to restrictions on access to Russian media on the US social media platform, in recent days.
Roskomnadzor, said there have been 26 cases of discrimination against Russian media by Facebook since October 2020. This includes restrictions in recent days on state-backed channels such as RT and the RIA news agency.
The move is a major escalation in the ongoing confrontation between big tech companies (Big Tech) and Russia, which in recent years has issued numerous fines and hobbled services through slowing speeds. Tensions are rising amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The Tass news agency reported on Friday that Russia had restricted access to Twitter. Even the Interfax news agency previously said the Twitter service had been blocked. Twitter Inc did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the block.
Meta's head of global affairs, Nick Clegg, said the company would continue to do everything possible to restore its services in Russia.
"Soon millions of Russians will soon find themselves cut off from reliable information, deprived of their everyday ways of connecting with family and friends and silenced for speaking out," he said, in a statement posted on Twitter.
On the Russian government's decision to block access to Facebook in the Russian Federation: pic.twitter.com/JlJwIu1t9K
— Nick Clegg (@nickclegg) March 4, 2022
Meta in a blog said it was trying to keep its service available "as far as possible" in Russia. However, they have stopped showing ads to users in Russia and banned advertisers from Russia from running ads anywhere in the world "due to the difficulty of operating in Russia at the moment."
Tech companies such as Alphabet Inc's Google have also temporarily suspended advertising in Russia amid rising censorship demands.
Last week, Moscow said it was partially restricting access to Facebook, a move the company said came after it rejected government requests to stop independent fact-checking of some Russian state media. On Saturday, Twitter also said its service was restricted to some Russian users.
Big tech companies have also faced pressure to respond to the February 24 invasion, which has led to economic sanctions against Moscow by governments around the world. Russia's state-run media have emerged as a major flashpoint between Moscow and social media platforms during the conflict.
Meta this week said it had restricted access to RT and Sputnik across the European Union and globally took down content from the Facebook pages and Instagram accounts of Russian government-controlled media outlets, as well as posts containing links to those outlets on Facebook.
Russia has taken several steps to crack down on foreign news media in recent days. This policy is like cutting off access to several websites of news organizations, including the BBC, Voice of America, and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty for spreading information that Russia considers false about its actions in Ukraine.
The Ukrainian government itself has also asked Meta and other platforms during the conflict to withdraw their services from Russia. Online speech experts and rights advocates have raised concerns about the impact of blocking online services on Russian citizens trying to organize or obtain information.
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Meta had about 7.5 million users on Facebook in Russia last year and 122.2 million users across other services, including Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger, according to estimates from Insider Intelligence. Russia's leading social network, VK, has 63 million users, according to researchers' estimates.
According to data from researchers AppFigures, the popular VPN app has been downloaded more than 1.3 million times in Russia since its invasion of Ukraine began. This describes the figure as a huge spike.
Meta is also one of several tech companies facing possible punitive action in Russia after they failed to open local offices and take other actions required by a communications law passed this summer.
Tech companies globally have pulled out of Russia in response to requests from governments or to signal support for Ukraine. US internet provider Cogent Communications said on Friday it was cutting internet services to Russian clients.
Earlier this week, business software giant Oracle Corp also said it was suspending all operations in Russia, while rival SAP SE said it would temporarily halt all sales in the country. A Ukrainian government official has tweeted at both companies asking for support.
Roskomnadzor said in its statement that Meta had restricted access to accounts of state-backed news outlets in recent days. The restricted Russian media access is RT, Sputnik, RIA news agency, Zvezda TV of the defense ministry, and the sites gazeta.ru and lenta.ru.
It said the restrictions violated the main principles of freedom of information and unhindered access of Russian internet users to Russian media.
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