Russia limiting access to Facebook and Twitter after censorship row amid Ukraine invasion

Russia is limiting local access to Facebook and Twitter in response to perceived censorship.

Moscow’s state communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, has argued that Facebook is placing restrictions on four Russian media outlets: RIA news agency, the Defence Ministry’s Zvezda TV, and websites gazeta.ru and lenta.ru.

In response, Russia is threatening to limit access to Facebook, as well as other platforms owned by Facebook’s parent company Meta, such as Whatsapp and Instagram.

“In accordance with the decision of the General Prosecutor’s Office, starting from Feb. 25, partial access restrictions are being imposed by Roskomnadzor on the Facebook social network,” the regulator said in a statement.

Roskomnadzor did not specify how exactly or to what extent they would limit access to Facebook.

Meta’s head of global affairs and former UK Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg responded to say: "Yesterday, Russian authorities ordered us to stop the independent fact-checking and labelling of content posted to Facebook by four Russian state-owned media organizations.”

“We refused. As a result, they have announced they will be restricting the use of our services."

Clegg argued that "ordinary Russians" use Meta’s apps -- which include Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, as well as Facebook -- to "express themselves and organize for action" and that the company wanted them to continue to do so.

In response, Facebook’s Head of Security Policy Nathaniel Gleicher issued the following statement:

“We are now prohibiting Russian state media from running ads or monetizing on our platform anywhere in the world. We also continue to apply labels to additional Russian state media. These changes have already begun rolling out and will continue into the weekend.”

Meanwhile, the watchdog NetBlocks has confirmed that access to Twitter is being restricted across a number of Russian internet providers.

NetBlocks is a global internet monitor which tracks worldwide internet access.

“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,” NetBlocks Director, Alp Toker, said.

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