Meta has reportedly blocked Russian state media outlets from Facebook and Instagram.
Meta has reportedly blocked Russian state media outlets RT (earlier named as Russia Today) and Sputnik across the European Union. Both the media outlets are blocked from the Facebook and Instagram platform.
“We have received requests from a number of Governments and the EU to take further steps in relation to Russian state-controlled media,” Nick Clegg, President of Global Affairs at Meta (Facebook) said through his tweet on Twitter.
Later, he stated:
“Given the exceptional nature of the current situation, we will be restricting access to RT and Sputnik across the EU at this time,” he posted late on Monday.
The platform also reported that the social network has blocked Russian state media from advertising on the social media platforms. Earlier, Meta blocked access to several Russian state-controlled accounts in Ukraine. The platform stated that they received the request from several governments requesting to restrict the access of these accounts in their countries.
Hit by partial restrictions, Meta had prohibited Russian state media from running ads or monetising on its platform anywhere in the world. Furthermore, Meta has stated that it has taken down a network that has been targeting people based in Ukraine who has been posting as news editors, aviation engineers and authors to spread false news around the Russian invasion across social media platforms.
The people ran websites posing as independent news entities and created fake personas across social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Telegram and also Russian Odnoklassniki and VK apps, the company said. This operation ran a handful of websites masquerading as independent news outlets, publishing claims about the West betraying Ukraine and Ukraine is a failed state.