Amid crackdown on protesters and pro-independence activists mediathe Kremlin blocked access to Facebook and Twitter on Friday.
Russian telecoms regulator Roskomnadzor said the decision to block Facebook was made in response to the platform’s alleged “discrimination” against Russian media, citing 26 cases since October 2020.
Nick Clegg, president of global affairs for Facebook’s parent company Meta, said in a statement on Twitter: “Soon, millions of ordinary Russians will be cut off from reliable information, deprived of their daily ways of connecting. “We will continue to do our best to restore our services so that they are available to people to express themselves safely and to organize for action.”
On Friday evening, Meta released another statement announcing that advertisers in Russia would be cut off from Facebook: “Despite the Russian government’s announcement that they will block Facebook, we are working to keep our services available to the fullest extent possible. “Due to the difficulties of operating in Russia at this time, ads targeting people in Russia will be paused and advertisers in Russia will no longer be able to create or run ads anywhere in the world, including Russia.”
Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s Minister of Digital Transformation, confirmed the ban on Twitter in a Telegram post and compared the move to something from a book by George Orwell.
But a Twitter spokesman told CBS News that while the company is aware of reports of a ban, the platform currently sees nothing “significantly different” from what it previously had. shared.
Poor access followed Russia’s move on Thursday to reduce access to various websites of foreign news organizations, including the BBC, Voice of America, Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Deutsche Welle and other media. .
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, the Kremlin has added more than 5,000 websites to its “denied list,” according to research and security firm Top 10 VPN. While some banned websites include routine regulations, more than 80 media outlets and 30 financial sites have been denied access since Feb. 24.
Simon Migliano, head of research for Top 10 VPN, told CBS News that Russia has recently focused on shutting down news in Russian. “There was a big push right after the invasion,” Migliano told CBS News.
“It feels absolutely like a coordinated and strategic campaign, first pursuing the big Ukrainian-language news sites. They are now expanding to big foreign news sites with a large number of followers in Russia following the invasion.”
Russia began blocking financial sites on Monday as the value of the ruble plummeted. Prohibitions include currency and cryptocurrency platforms that would allow Russians to trade money in another currency.
The official announcement of a Facebook ban also came several days after the Russian government restricted access to social media platforms, in what Roskomnadzor called a “partial” blockade. This limitation, or intentional slowdown in Internet speed, followed Meta’s refusal to stop independent verification of state-backed Russian media facts.
Users reported that the speed of the Internet was so slow when entering sites from Russian IP addresses, that it made them unusable, even though there was no official ban.
On Monday, Facebook and Instagram restricted access to Russian state media across the European Union after receiving requests from the EU and various governments to make the move. Two days later, Twitter confirmed that it would impose similar regulations in Europe, following the announcement of EU sanctions on state-backed media, RT and Sputnik.
At the time, Twitter said its “global approach outside the EU” would focus on amplifying the content of state-affiliated media through tagging. “We continue to advocate for a free and open Internet, especially in times of crisis,” said Twitter spokeswoman Katie Rosborough.
But the Kremlin also began restricting Twitter last week, according to data from global watchdog Internet Netblocks, which recorded restricted access to several Russian telecommunications service providers.
Alp Toker, founder and director of Netblocks, told CBS News that acceleration is a deliberate tool of information warfare commonly used by Russians to create more uncertainty.
“The only real motivator for limiting a platform to this point is to create ambiguity and confusion around the restriction itself,” Toker said, adding that the resulting slow service provides the Russian government with a plausible denial.
“When a website is partially loaded, your first response is to blame a bad internet connection, not the government or the country. This ambiguity is a space where misinformation can thrive on its own.”
Migliano said he was surprised that the Kremlin had not blocked even more sites, including English-language websites.
But as more and more Russians turn to VPN services to circumvent Internet restrictions, VPN demand has risen nearly 700% more than before the invasion, according to Top 10 VPNs.
“I think there will be more and more this question of how to communicate with people,” Toker said. “As we’ve looked at our metrics over the last few days, we’ve seen such a rapid closure of the online space that it looks like we’re going to find a new Iran or China when it comes to connectivity.”
Add Comment