Facebook bans Russian state media from monetizing
As Russia's special military operation in Ukraine nears Kiev, Facebook has attempted to limit the state media's ability to monetize.
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Russia accused Facebook of censorship. (TechCrunch)
As the Russian army inches closer to Kiev in its special military operation, Facebook on Friday curtailed Russian state media's ability to generate money on the social media network.
According to Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook's Security Policy Head, tweeted that the platform is now "prohibiting Russian state media from running ads or monetizing on our platform anywhere in the world."
1/ We are now prohibiting Russian state media from running ads or monetizing on our platform anywhere in the world. We also continue to apply labels to additional Russian state media. These changes have already begun rolling out and will continue into the weekend.
— Nathaniel Gleicher (@ngleicher) February 26, 2022
Gleicher added that the platform will also continue to "apply labels to additional Russian state media."
Facebook's parent company, Meta, announced earlier Friday that Russia will impose limits on its services after it failed to comply with authorities' orders to stop deploying fact-checkers and content warning labels on its platforms.
Meta's Nick Clegg claimed in a statement that Facebook refused to comply with Russian authorities' "orders" of stopping the biased fact-checking and labeling of content.
Prior to his statement, Russia's media regulator accused Facebook of censorship and violating the rights of Russian citizens.
Social media platforms have become one of the front lines in the crisis, providing often inaccurate information, as well as real-time monitoring of Ukraine's NATO allies moving closer to Russia's border.
Russia has for months been warning of the threat posed against it by NATO's attempts to expand eastward, which happened alongside an increase in NATO military activity along Russia's borders, and batches of lethal weapons being sent to Ukraine, prompting Russia to request security guarantees from the West. Washington failed to provide the guarantees.
Despite the special military operation, Russia has reiterated its endorsement of diplomacy as the Russian President told his Chinese counterpart earlier that Russia is ready to hold high-level negotiations with Ukraine.
