The Russian government has blocked Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube within the country, preventing all its citizens from using the three social media giants.
The social media crackdown by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government was confirmed Friday by GlobalCheck, a group that monitors the accessibility of websites in Russia and the region using sensors. It was also confirmed by multiple U.S. news outlets.
Russia’s communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, said the move to ban Facebook was a response to what it claimed was restricted access to state media on the social media platform, including RT and Sputnik, which were blocked in Europe by all the major social media platforms following the invasion of Ukraine.
“Soon millions of ordinary Russians will find themselves cut off from reliable information, deprived of their everyday ways of connecting with family and friends and silenced from speaking out,” said Nick Clegg, president of global affairs at Facebook, in a statement. “We will continue to do everything we can to restore our services so they remain available to safely and securely express themselves and organize for action.”
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The Russian regulator claimed there have been 26 cases of unfair discrimination against Russian media by Facebook since October 2020.
Russia had already partially restricted local access to social media giants such as Facebook and Twitter last week after protesters used the platforms to organize and oppose the war.
The Roskomnadzor also said last week Facebook was violating Russian citizens’ rights by censoring certain speech.
Late last week, under pressure from their users and government officials, Facebook, Google, YouTube, and Twitter announced efforts to block Russian state media from running ads and monetizing content on their platforms.
RT and Sputnik, two major Russian news organizations, are funded by the government and considered mouthpieces of President Vladimir Putin‘s regime, which has been accused of spreading disinformation to justify its war in Ukraine.
Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s vice prime minister and its minister of digital transformation, said Saturday he had asked the CEOs of Google, YouTube, Apple, and Netflix to block or limit their platforms in Russia to anger young Russians and put pressure on Putin to end the war.
“I asked YouTube to block the Russian propaganda media, which call us Nazis and drug addicts, lie and promote war. Asked Meta to block Facebook and Instagram. I asked Netflix to block the service in Russia,” Fedorov said in a statement on Facebook.
The social media giants are aligned in trying to curb Russian disinformation about what is happening in Ukraine. Some of the platforms have even restricted access to Russian government accounts altogether.
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Putin’s government has a long history of trying to pressure tech companies to censor and filter anti-government content posted within the country, and the government has even incorporated its own filters that slow download times significantly.
