Russia’s Federal Communications Service, Roskomnadzor, has restricted Facebook’s activities in the country after Facebook restricted the accounts of four Russian media outlets: Zvezda TV channel, RIA Novosti news agency, Lenta pages .ru, and Gazeta.ru.
According to Neowin, Roskomnadzor said such an account ban is a violation of Federal law No. 272-FZ “on measures affecting the violation of fundamental human rights and freedoms of citizens of the Russian Federation.”.
The agency also claimed it had asked Meta to remove the restrictions that applied to the four media, but that Meta ignored the request.
The Russian state regulator has not clarified what the partial restrictions on Facebook are. Furthermore, they claim to have recorded 23 cases of such censorship of Russian websites and media by Facebook, which is why they have decided to partially restrict Facebook access in the country.
Perhaps the main reason that Meta bans Russian media outlets is to limit the spread of misinformation that could potentially escalate the situation between Ukraine and Russia.