MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th March, 2021) Facebook on Sunday banned a post about the arrest of supporters of a radical Ukrainian group in Russia's Voronezh, shared by several Russian media outlets, including Ria Novosti.
The report was marked as fake news despite it being written on the basis of the Russian Federal Security Service's statement.
StopFake, Facebook's partner fact-checking organization headquartered in Kiev, explained that the report wrongly claims that members of the radical group had a connection to Ukraine as they were Russians.
The RBC broadcaster, which also saw its report banned, said that representatives of StopFake themselves had connections to far-right nationalists in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Russia's communications watchdog Roskomnadzor demanded Facebook to restore access to posts shared by Russian media outlets.
"Roskomnadzor sent a letter to the management of Facebook with a demand to restore access to the information posted in the official accounts of Russian media outlets," the watchdog said in a statement.
The Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency confirmed that posts made by Ria Novosti and radio Sputnik were banned by Facebook. The agency also called the social network's decision "censorship."
"The blocking of our materials, based on reliable official sources, is an act of censorship on the part of Facebook. The incident can only be viewed as disrespect for the right of citizens to free access to information," the agency's press office said, adding that such moves should be punishable by law.
The agency added that it is unacceptable that fact-checkers from Ukraine and Baltic countries, which are "deliberately politically biased towards the Russian media," are reviewing posts made by Russian outlets.
