Against the background of the events taking place in the world, the authorities of the Russian Federation decided to block the most popular social network in the world, Facebook, in the country. However, it should immediately be clarified that despite this decision, another social network of the Meta Corporation, namely Instagram, just like the WhatsApp messenger, is still available in the country.
Going into detail, the country’s telecommunications regulator, known as Roskomnadzor, says the move is a response to the social network’s blocking access to state-owned media such as RT and Sputnik throughout the European Union, Ukraine and the UK. What’s more, Meta has also downgraded all content from Russian state media on Facebook and Instagram around the world.
It is important to mention that the aforementioned regulator also claims that Facebook has also restricted access to the accounts of other media organizations in the country, which, according to Roskomnadzor, violates Russian law. “Soon, millions of ordinary Russians will find themselves cut off from reliable information, deprived of their daily ways of communicating with family and deprived of the right to speak out. Whatever the case may be, we will continue to do everything possible to restore our services so that they remain accessible to people, so that they can safely and reliably express their thoughts and organize for action, ”said Meta President of Global Affairs Nick Clegg.
After the authorities of the Russian Federation decided to invade the territory of Ukraine, the same above-mentioned regulator asked the Meta corporation to stop checking the facts published by the four main state-owned media outlets, as well as remove the labels that the social network assigned to their messages on Facebook. However, the company refused to comply with this requirement. Anyway, last week many other technology platforms made a similar decision to block Russian state media, or simply made it difficult for users to view their content. These include sites such as YouTube, Reddit, Spotify, and Roku. Meanwhile, the European Union similarly banned broadcasting on the territory of the entire association of RT and Sputnik.
