Facebook and Twitter were filtered in Russia

Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it is now reported that Facebook and Twitter social networks in Russia have been filtered due to censorship of state media content.

Recently, at the behest of Vladimir Putin, the Russian military invasion of Ukraine began, which caused a lot of negative reactions around the world, and in addition to governments, ordinary users on social networks also criticized the Russians. The news of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is not supposed to be newsworthy, but it is a fact that war affects everything. In fact, technology is at the center of the crisis, because all technology is involved in the crisis itself, and all information is disseminated through technology, and especially through social networks and media. Following these events, it is now reported that the social networks Facebook and Twitter in Russia have been filtered.

The reason for the restriction of Facebook and Twitter in Russia

Now social media giants, especially Facebook and Twitter, are very careful about the information they publish on their platforms. Since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Facebook has been scrutinizing the information of Russia’s four major state-owned media outlets. To that end, Russia has asked Facebook to stop censorship, but Facebook has ignored the request.

As a result, Russia has now restricted access to Facebook because of the platform’s position. Nick Clegg, Meta’s director of global affairs, wrote on Twitter:

Yesterday, Russian officials ordered us to stop independently verifying and tagging content posted to Facebook by four Russian state-run media outlets, but we declined. As a result, they have stated that they will restrict the use of our services.

The move came just a day after the start of the invasion of Ukraine. According to Russian communications regulator Roskomnadzor, Facebook is violating the rights and freedoms of Russian citizens. Nevertheless, Facebook says that ordinary Russian users use our programs to express themselves and organize their actions, and we urge them to continue to make their voices heard. In fact, Facebook executives say they have nothing to do with ordinary users and focus only on content published by Russian government-affiliated media. Of course, there are instructions on Facebook, and if the opinions of ordinary Russian people violate these instructions, Facebook will censor them.

The Russian state media paint a positive picture of Russia’s military progress in Ukraine, and they even call this military invasion a special military operation that Moscow has no choice but to carry out. Yet the world knows there is nothing positive about losing people’s lives. For this reason, Meta now has a special operations center that monitors the published content of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

While we know that Russia is restricting Facebook and its parent company, Meta, the exact level of the restriction is still unclear. This restriction may also affect all meta applications including WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Instagram. Until now, Russian state media such as the RIA, the state television channel Zvezda, and pro-Kremlin news sites such as Lenta.Ru and Gazeta.Ru have restrictions on Facebook. It also seems that the American social media giant, Meta, will not back down from its position and will continue to examine the information and content of these media.

In addition to Facebook, NetBlocks has now announced that Russian-based users will have limited access to Twitter as of this afternoon, and that access to the social network on several different service providers will be disrupted and even limited or even cut off altogether. In any case, Russian officials have had disagreements with social media executives over the rules and restrictions on these platforms, and it remains to be seen what will happen in the coming days.