MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd December, 2020) Baltnews, a Russian-language news portal covering the Baltic states, has announced on Thursday that its page on Facebook has been blocked by the social media giant without a reason being given.
"Facebook has blocked the Baltnews page. The administration of the social network has not given a reason for the blocking," Baltnews said on the portal's official Telegram channel.
The head of Baltnews, Andrey Starikov, later told Sputnik that Facebook's decision to block the page showed that the social media platform was applying censorship in a chaotic manner.
"After all, Facebook rules no longer exist. From being a space of freedom and communication, the social network has long turned into the Grand Inquisitor. Censorship is used chaotically. There are reasons and facts to believe that it was based on a tip from Western intelligence services," Starikov said.
Several Russian and Russian-language media companies have faced censorship in the Baltic nations over the past year. In summer, Latvia and Lithuania banned multiple RT channels from being broadcast and Sputnik Estonia employees were threatened with criminal prosecution almost one year ago.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov this past September called the discrimination against Sputnik news agency and the RT broadcaster across Europe "unacceptable."
On November 19, a bill outlining the sanctions that could come into force if Russian media outlets are censored was introduced to the lower house of the Russian parliament. According to the draft legislation, foreign online platforms would face sanctions for censoring Russian content and for restricting access to information that is socially significant in Russia.
The Russian communications watchdog, Roskomnadzor, has backed the bill.
