Access to Facebook is closed in Russia. The Roskomnadzor, the authority in charge of communications, ordered the blocking of the social network this evening due to 26 cases of ” discrimination against Russian information resources and media identified on Facebook since October 2020.
Access to the accounts of several publications and media in the country, including Russia Today and Sputnik, have also been restricted in recent days by Facebook, which represents a violation of a Russian law supposed to protect ” key principles of free dissemination of information and unimpeded user access to these media.
A croquignole pretext (to say the least), knowing that Russia today adopted legislation punishing the publication of “false news” on the armed forces of the country, up to 15 years in prison. The BBC has also announced the suspension of its activities in the country.
Facebook is not the most popular social network in Russia, this role is held by VKontakte and Odnoklassniki. On the other hand, Instagram and WhatsApp are widely used there, and from what we understand, these services remain available in the country. Prior to this blocking, Meta had banned Russian state media from serving ads and collecting ad revenue on its various platforms.
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Update 9 p.m. — Twitter also seems targeted by the blocking put in place by Roskomnadzor.
