Russia Will Partly Block Facebook, Claiming Social Giant Violated ‘Human Rights’ in Restricting Kremlin-Backed Media

variety.com:

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorThe Russian government announced that it has taken steps to “partially restrict access” to Facebook in the country, asserting that the social network censored official news outlets amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.Facebook was “involved in the violation of fundamental human rights and freedoms, as well as the rights and freedoms of Russian citizens,” by restricting Kremlin-backed news sources, according to an announcement released Friday (Feb.

25) by Roskomnadzor, the Russian governmental agency responsible for monitoring and censoring Russian media. It isn’t immediately clear what Russia’s move to “partially” block access to Facebook’s service means.The agency, under the heading of “Measures taken to protect Russian media,” said it was taking the action after Facebook on Feb.

24 restricted the official accounts of four Russian media outlets on its platform: the Zvezda TV channel, RIA Novosti news agency, Lenta.ru and Gazeta.ru.

According to Roskomnadzor, Facebook tagged the Russian media as “unreliable” and “imposed technical restrictions on the search results of publications” to reduce their audience reach.