Moscow, Europe Brief News – Russia has confirmed that it has partially limited facebook access after the social media network restricted accounts of various kremlin-backed media outlets over the invasion of Ukraine.
Roskomnadzor, Russia’s communication regulator, blamed Facebook for violating the rights and freedom of Russian nationals.
Facebook parent company Meta revealed that the company rejected the Russian officials proposal to end fast-checking of State owned media in Russia.
Internet connectivity monitoring staff at Netblocks confirmed that there are almost full restrictions that have been imposed on the use of twitter in Russia.
Netblock confirmed that the Faceebok and Instagram services are working as usual but Twitter services started going down.
The people in Russia are using VPN applications to get access to social media networks. VPN is more than handy to access websites that the government has banned.
Alp Toker, Director of Netblocks said “ Russia’s restriction of twitter will significantly limit the free flow of information at a time of crisis when the public most need to stay informed”.
There is a total uncertainty over what facebook restriction could mean if placed, these restrictions can also possibly hit the other Meta-owned platforms like Facebook messenger and instagram.
Nick Clegg Remarks On The Issue
Nick Clegg, Former deputy Prime Minister and Meta’s head of global affairs said “ Yesterday, Russian Authorities ordered us to stop the independent fast checking and labelling of content posted to facebook by four Russian state owned media organisations but we refused”.
He further added that in the response to our statement, Russian officials announced that they will limit the use of our services in their country.
Many Russian state owned media outlets were sharing pictures and videos to develop a positive image of Russian invasion to Ukraine by calling the invasion a “ special military operation” to defend the people of Sepatrists regions in the Eastern Ukraine.
Russia has its own facebook equivalent social media site as Vk, but still most Russians use facebook to connect to people from different parts of the world.
Mark Warner, US senator said “ Youtube , Facebook and other social media services have a clear responsibility to ensure that your products are not used to facilitate human right abuses’ ‘.
