Russia to restrict Facebook access for 'censoring' its media

Moscow  was partially limiting access to Meta Platforms Inc's Facebook, accusing it of "censoring" Russian media, announcing the measure a day after Russia invaded Ukraine and the latest in a series of steps against US social media giants, according to media reports.

Moscow has also increased pressure on domestic media, threatening to block reports that contain what it describes as "false information" regarding its military operation in Ukraine.

The state communications regulator said Facebook had ignored its demands to lift restrictions on four Russian media outlets on its platform - RIA news agency, the Defence Ministry's Zvezda TV, and websites gazeta.ru and lenta.ru.

"Yesterday, Russian authorities ordered us to stop the independent fact-checking and labelling of content posted to Facebook by four Russian state-owned media organizations. We refused. As a result, they have announced they will be restricting the use of our services."Meta's head of global affairs, Nick Clegg, posted on Twitter.

US Senator Mark Warner said in a letter to the chief executives of Facebook, YouTube and others that the companies have a duty to ensure their social media platforms are not misused by Russia and Russia-linked entities.

Each company has "a clear responsibility to ensure that your products are not used to facilitate human rights abuses, undermine humanitarian and emergency service responses, or advance harmful disinformation," Warner said.

Alphabet Inc's Google said it has removed hundreds of YouTube channels and thousands of videos over the last few days for violating its policies.

Twitter Inc said users in Russia and Ukraine would no longer see ads - an attempt to avoid distracting from public safety messages - and that they would not get recommended tweets from accounts they do not follow in a bid to limit the spread of abusive content. 

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