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| Facebook bans ads from Russian state media |
Facebook has banned Russian state-owned media from promoting and monetizing content on the platform amid the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
“We are now preventing Russian state media from promoting or monetizing our platform anywhere in the world,” Nathaniel Glaisher, Facebook's head of security policy, said on Twitter. These changes have been implemented and will continue through the end of the week.
He also noted that Facebook continues to tag "other Russian state media." This is a platform initiative for all state-controlled media in 2020.
Facebook has since created an Operations Center dedicated to monitoring the network and responding to the rampant conflict. It also launched a "one-click tool" in Ukraine that allows users to lock their profiles so that only their friends can see their posts, photos and stories. Facebook rolled out the same feature during the Afghanistan crisis last August.
“We are closely monitoring the situation in Ukraine,” said Gleicher. We'll continue to share the steps we're taking to keep people safe on our platform.
Russia partially blocks Facebook
Russia has partially blocked access to Facebook in the country. The Russian government says the platform has banned four accounts linked to Russian media outlets.
The country's Communications and Technology Authority has ordered social networks to stop fact-checking and rating public media content. But the platform refused to comply.
Roskomnadzor said that Facebook violated the rights and freedoms of Russian citizens. Since October 2020, 23 cases of social media censorship have also been recorded.
The Russian regulator explained: On February 24, Roskomnadzor submitted a request to the Overseas Administration to lift the restrictions imposed by the social network on Russian media and explained the reasons for introducing these restrictions. He added that Meta ignored his request.
It is unclear what Roskomnadz's partial restrictions on the social network mean or whether the government has somehow blocked access to WhatsApp, which is part of the country-specific definition.
In response to Roskomnadzor's statement, Meta's head of global affairs, Nick Clegg, confirmed that the company refuses to comply with government demands to stop fact-checking and categorizing content published by four media outlets on Facebook. Clegg tweeted: “We declined. Then they announced restrictions on using our services.