Russia to restrict Facebook access for ‘censoring’ media

Moscow said on Friday it was partially limiting access to Meta Platforms Inc’s Facebook, accusing it of “censoring” Russian media, announcing the measure a day after Russia invaded Ukraine and the latest in a series of steps against US social media giants. Moscow has also increased pressure on domestic media, threatening to block reports that contain what it describes as “false information” regarding its military operation in Ukraine, where Russian missiles were pounding Kyiv and families cowered in shelters.

The state communications regulator said Facebook had ignored its demands to lift restrictions on four Russian media outlets on its platform - RIA news agency, the Defence Ministry’s Zvezda TV, and websites gazeta.ru and lenta.ru.

Meta’s head of global affairs, Nick Clegg, said in a statement on Twitter: “Yesterday, Russian authorities ordered us to stop the independent fact-checking and labelling of content posted to Facebook by four Russian state-owned media organisations. We refused. As a result, they have announced they will be restricting the use of our services.”

Meta, which has long been under pressure to combat misinformation, partners with outside fact-checkers, including Reuters, which assess some content for veracity. Meta says that content rated false, altered or partly false is shown to fewer users. Clegg said “ordinary Russians” were using Meta’s apps -- which include Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, as well as Facebook -- to “express themselves and organise for action” and that the company wanted them to continue to do so.