Russia announces it has blocked access to Facebook
The White House has said it is "deeply concerned" about the move.
Russia's media regulator Roskomnadzor has announced that it has blocked access to Facebook in the country.
The move comes after Meta, Facebook's parent company, announced earlier in the week that it would be restricting access to Russian news channels RT and Sputnik across the EU.
This was in response to Russia's invasion of its neighbour Ukraine last week.
In a statement on Friday (4 March), Roskomnadzor said:
"A decision was made to block access to the Facebook network (owned by Meta Platforms, Inc.) in the Russian Federation.
"Since October 2020, 26 cases of discrimination against Russian media and information resources by Facebook have been recorded.
"In recent days, the social network has restricted access to accounts: the Zvezda TV channel, the RIA Novosti news agency, Sputnik, Russia Today, the Lenta.ru and Gazeta.ru information resources."
President for Global Affairs at Meta Nick Clegg said that the move will see millions of ordinary Russians "cut off from reliable information, deprived of their everyday ways of connecting with family and friends and silenced from speaking out".
"We will continue to do everything we can to restore our services so they remain available to people to safely and securely express themselves and organise for action," he added.
On the Russian government's decision to block access to Facebook in the Russian Federation: pic.twitter.com/JlJwIu1t9K
— Nick Clegg (@nickclegg) March 4, 2022
Meanwhile, in a briefing on Friday, White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said the move was part of Russia's effort "to cut off a range of information from their public".
"Certainly we are deeply concerned about this and concerned about the threat on freedom of speech in the country".
