Ukraine: Russia Announces 'Partial Restriction' Of Facebook Access Over Platform Limits On 'Kremlin-Backed' Media

Russia has reportedly announced a 'partial restriction' of access to Facebook after the platform enforced restrictions on Kremlin-backed media.

The news came from Russia's communications regulator Roskomnadzor, which accused Facebook of 'censorship' for imposing limitations on state news agency RIA Novosti, state TV channel Zvezda, and pro-Kremlin news sites Lenta.Ru and Gazeta.Ru.

It is not immediately clear what the restrictions being imposed on Facebook will involve, but the move came as Roskomnadzor demanded Facebook lift the restrictions, which include marking the Russian media content as unreliable and imposing technical restrictions on search results so they would not get as many readers through Facebook.

In an official statement cited by The Las Vegas Sun, Roskomnadzor said its restrictions came as 'measures to protect Russian media', and that Russia’s Foreign Ministry and the Prosecutor General’s office found Facebook 'complicit in violation of fundamental human rights and freedoms, as well as the rights and freedoms of Russian nationals.'

After Russian troops crossed the border into Ukraine yesterday, February 24, Facebook head of security policy Nathaniel Gleicher tweeted about a series of actions the platform will take in response to the invasion.

Gleicher explained Facebook had established a Special Operations Center with native speakers to 'closely monitor the situation and act as fast as possible', and that the platform had deployed a feature in Ukraine which allows users to lock their account to prevent people who are not their friends from downloading or sharing their profile pictures, or seeing posts on their timeline.

Politico reports that social media sites have been under pressure to clamp down on disinformation as the situation in Ukraine continues to unfold, with Russia’s top five international state-backed media outlets having used both Facebook and Twitter to share debunked reports about unprovoked attacks from the Ukrainian military.

Liubov Tsybulska, founder of Ukraine’s Center for Strategic Communication and an advisor for the Ukranian strategic communications center, explained: 'We see that there are many, many attempts to blame Ukraine for killing civilians, saying that the Ukrainian army is trying to attack. Propaganda activities have intensified largely for the last few weeks.'

Joining Facebook in taking steps against the issues is Twitter, which said its safety and integrity teams are watching for risks associated with conflicts in Ukraine, and TikTok, which is working to remove content that promotes violence or harmful misinformation.

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