Russia’s communications agency Roskomnadzor said on Friday that it will block access to Facebook in the Russian Federation due to restrictions the social platform has placed on state-owned media outlets like Russia Today and Sputnik in the European Union.
In a statement posted to Telegram, the agency alleged there had been 26 cases of “discrimination” against Russian media and information services, according to an English translation of the post.
“Soon millions of ordinary Russians will find themselves cut off from reliable information,” Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, said in a statement Friday. “We will continue to do everything we can to restore our services so they remain available to people to safely and securely express themselves and organize for action.”
On Feb. 25, Russia began partially limiting access to Facebook over the platform’s decision to add fact-checking labels to posts from Russian state-owned media outlets, though it was not clear what those limitations would entail.
“Russian authorities ordered us to stop the independent fact-checking and labeling of content posted on Facebook by four Russian state-owned media organizations,” Clegg had said in a statement at the time. “We refused. As a result, they have announced they will be restricting the use of our services.”
In a separate post to Telegram on Friday, Roskomnadzor said it has also contacted TikTok regarding videos from the state-owned media agency RIA Novosti that were removed from the social platform. Earlier this week, TikTok said it would be blocking RT and Sputnik in the E.U. A spokesperson for TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Roskomnadzor’s latest statement.
