Communications of the ACM
Russia Is Strengthening Its Censorship Regime by Blocking Facebook
It is unclear if the government blocks will extend to other apps owned by Facebook’s parent company Meta, like WhatsApp and Instagram.
Credit: Alexey Nikolsky/Sputnik/AFP/Getty Images
After a week of threats and half-measures, the Russian government has officially blocked Facebook and continues to restrict Twitter from the tens of millions of users in the country who use the apps daily.
The move comes at a time when the Russian government is unsurprisingly increasing its crackdown on the free press and other sources of information to control the narrative about its invasion of Ukraine (which Russian media is not allowed to call a war, but instead a "special military operation"). In the past few weeks, the few remaining independent local news outlets in Russia that are not government-affiliated have been shut down, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a new law that threatens up to 15 years in jail for Russians who post "fake news" about the invasion, and the government has already arrested thousands of anti-war protesters.
Now, Facebook and Twitter — which Russians have used to voice dissent and share independent news about the brutality of the war — are the latest target of Putin's crackdown on media. While Facebook and Twitter have complicated track records and are sometimes used by bad actors (even the Russian government itself) to interfere with democracy, Putin's shutdown of these apps will undoubtedly have a chilling effect on political speech in Russia.
From Vox
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