Russia Blocks Access to Facebook in Information Crackdown

(Bloomberg) -- The Russian government is blocking Facebook in the country as part of a broader effort to silence dissent and limit information about its invasion of Ukraine.

A post from Russia's communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, said Facebook would be blocked because of “discrimination against Russian media and information resources.” Facebook previously banned Russia state-backed media accounts from operating in the European Union in an effort to cut down on Russian propaganda and misinformation.

“Soon millions of ordinary Russians will find themselves cut off from reliable information, deprived of their everyday ways of connecting with family and friends and silenced from speaking out,” said Nick Clegg, vice president of global affairs at Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. “We will continue to do everything we can to restore our services so they remain available to people safely and securely express themselves and organizing for action.”

Other services operated by Meta, including WhatsApp and Instagram, haven't been impacted by the ban, but that could change, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Just a few hours after the announcement, Meta said it would pause all advertising in Russia, and would stop selling ads to Russian businesses.

“Due to the difficulties of operating in Russia at this time, ads targeting people in Russia will be paused, and advertisers within Russia will no longer be able to create or run ads anywhere in the world, including within Russia,” the company wrote in a blog post.

Meta is the first U.S. tech giant to have a product prohibited in the country. Russia's block was an escalation of its earlier tactic, slowing down social media services to make them harder and more frustrating to use. Russia had already been slowing down Facebook in the country for almost a week, along with other social media sites such as Twitter and YouTube.

The government has also enacted a new law that could result in 15 years in prison for spreading what it considers “false” information about the military. Two liberal broadcasters, Ekho Moskvy and TV Rain, went off air Thursday under pressure from prosecutors who'd demanded that access be restricted because of their coverage of the war. The websites of the BBC, Deutsche Welle and Meduza, an independent news group, weren't accessible Friday.