Russia blocks Twitter, Facebook, various news sites, and major app stores
Russia has reportedly blocked access to Twitter, Facebook, various news sites, and major app stores to its nationals.
Reports emerging on Friday claim that Cyber Curtain comes down as Putin retaliates against Western outlets and platforms.
Meanwhile, Russia’s communications regulator in a statement said that it had blocked Meta Platforms Inc’s Facebook in response to what it said were restrictions of access to Russian media on its platform.
The regulatory body, Roskomnadzor, said there had been 26 cases of discrimination against Russian media by Facebook since October 2020, with access restricted to state-backed channels like RT and the RIA news agency.
“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.”
“The above restrictions are prohibited by federal law,” Roskomnadzor added.
According to web monitor group GlobalCheck and other indicators, multiple RFE/RL websites and the Russian sites of the BBC and Deutsche Welle, along with Facebook, Twitter, and Apple and Google’s app stores were all blocked overnight on March 3 and 4.