Russia Blocks Access to Facebook

Russian media voices announced on Friday that Meta-owned Facebook is blocked in all of Russia as a response to the blocking of RT, and Sputnik in all Europe amid the military operation in Russia.

Russia asked the social media platform of stopping the company's fact-checking and labelling of the content regarding state-owned outlets like RT, and Sputnik.

Facebook regulator Meta’s vice president of global affairs, Nick Clegg, said that 26 “cases of discrimination against Russian media and information resources by Facebook” have been reported since October 2020.

He added: “Soon millions of ordinary Russians will find themselves cut off from reliable information, deprived of their everyday ways of connecting with family and friends and silenced from speaking out,” continuing: “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.”

Last week, Google blocked the services of the gaining revenues from ads for all Russian state-owned media agencies, the decision included Facebook and Youtube, NBC News reported on Sunday.

Alphabet Inc. Spokesperson Michael Aciman also announced that the Russian media platforms will not be able to buy any ads from google and its all services such as Gmail, and Google Tools.

In the same context, the management of “YouTube” announced that it has suspended several Russian channels from advertising revenue due to the events in Ukraine.

“In light of the events in Ukraine, we have decided to suspend monetization of a number of YouTube channels, including several Russian channels that were recently sanctioned,” the company said in its statement.

“YouTube has restricted access to our channel’s live broadcast, which is transmitted from a camera in Maidan Square in Ukraine … This video is not available on Ukrainian soil now,” the editor-in-chief of the Russian newspaper, RBC, said.

Russia’s media outlet RT and other channels were banned from monetization on YouTube, a similar move made by Facebook after the operation in Ukraine.