The move deepens Russian isolation from the rest of the online world.
Russia blocked Facebook on Friday, lumping itself with the likes of China, Iran, and North Korea by cutting off all domestic access to the social network. The government’s Roskomnadzor communications regulator announced this in a statement that (as translated by Google) cited “26 cases of discrimination against Russian media and information resources by Facebook,” which it said violate a law requiring “unhindered access” to Russian media. The announcement did not mention Instagram or WhatsApp. Last week, Roskomnadzor said it was partially restricting access to Facebook after the network continued applying fact-checking labels to such officially sanctioned news outlets as the RIA Novosti news agency and the Zvezda TV channel. Days later, Facebook took steps to limit the circulation of posts from Russian state-controlled media. “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,” Nick Clegg, VP for global affairs at Facebook parent Meta, said in a tweet on Friday.
