On Friday, Meta Platform Inc. which owns Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram said that it was blocking Russian state owned media from its social media platforms. As the state media will not be able to run advertisements, they will lose a monetary source of income as well as will be effectively blocked from billions who log on daily to apps in the Meta network.
Nathaniel Gleicher, who is the head of security policy at Facebook, posted on Twitter on Saturday that they were “prohibiting Russian state media from running ads or monetizing” on their platforms, throughout the world. The decision was made as a response to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.
He also said that they have launched a new feature in Ukraine. This allows people to lock their profile and provides an extra layer of privacy and security so that it will add protection the people who are “on our platform.”
Earlier on Friday, Nick Clegg said that the Russian authorities had ordered Meta to stop labeling and fact checking posts that were uploaded by four Russian state-owned media companies. The vice president of global affairs said that they “refused” to do so. So, Meta services were being restricted. There is no information available about how the official restrictions will affect Meta platforms.
After the January 6 riot, social media platforms have started limiting the spread of misleading information as well as false propaganda, to a great extent. Facebook created a “Special Operations Center” so that it could fact check the information emerging from the conflict in Ukraine. They have hired experts who include native speakers in order to closely monitor the situation and to act in the shortest possible time. This has led to a tighter grip on social media by the Kremlin as it cannot control the narrative as it continues pounding Ukraine.
On Friday, Twitter had also said that they were temporarily stopping all advertisements in both Ukraine and Russia so that these ads do not detract from the elevation of “critical public safety information.”
On Saturday Twitter said that it was adding restrictions for some people in Russia but it was also “working to keep” its service “safe and accessible.”
