State Duma lawmaker calls for new laws to ‘protect digital sovereignty’ after Facebook blocks articles from Russian news sites
Russian lawmaker Vyacheslav Volodin has called for new laws aimed at “protecting digital sovereignty,” after Facebook blocked access to articles published by several Russian news sites.
According to a statement posted on the State Duma’s website on Monday, March 8, Volodin said that Facebook’s decision “violates the fundamental rights and freedoms of citizens.”
“This isn’t the first time this has happened on the part of Facebook; Instagram and Twitter have done the same before. I think this is unacceptable. It violates our national legislation. We will propose legislative solutions that would prevent this from happening in relation to Russian media.”
On March 7, Facebook blocked access to news reports about the arrest of alleged supporters of the radical, pro-Ukrainian youth group “MKU” published by the Russian state news agency TASS, the news portal RBC, and several other Russian media outlets. The articles in question were based on a press release from the Russian FSB. Russia’s federal media watchdog, Roskomnadzor, has ordered Facebook to restore access to this content.
Late last year, Roskomnadzor was empowered to partially or fully block online platforms (including major social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube) for “discriminating against” materials published by the Russian press.
