Facebook has deleted Russian news agency Rossiya Segodnya's English-language Arctic.ru page in an act that the agency labels as censorship
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st October, 2019) Facebook has deleted Russian news agency Rossiya Segodnya's English-language Arctic.ru page in an act that the agency labels as censorship.
"The removal of Arctic.ru falls in line with the Western understanding of freedom of speech: it is there, but not for all, as for Russian outlets, it doesn't exist at all. First, Facebook blocked the accounts of our journalists, now it has come to nature and polar bears. We understand � we are strategic adversaries and so on. But stop trying to teach the whole world your 'democratic' values and call a spade a spade. In this case, censorship," the press service for Rossiya Segodnya told Sputnik.
In January of this year, the social network platform blocked Sputnik pages and employee accounts. Last week, it also blocked a project page with recipes of Russian cuisine without explanation.
Yelena Davydova, head of Federal internet projects at Rossiya Segodnya, announced that she will continue to seek clarification from Facebook on the matter despite having not yet received any replies to initial requests for an explanation.
"We were as apolitical as possible, adhered to the facts and refrained from expressing our own opinions. We published legislative initiatives and acts on the conservation and development of the Arctic territories, information on the wildlife of the Arctic and the indigenous peoples of the North, both Russian and foreign, and the history of Arctic expeditions, in particular, diaries of polar stations. school teachers even contact us to help them organize thematic lessons or lectures. Blocking an account on the eve of two major events in Russia 'Arctic: Present and Future' and 'Days of the Arctic in Moscow' is pretty much a knife in the back," the agency's press service quoted Davydova as saying.
Arctic.ru is Rossiya Segodnya's special project, which launched on August 1, 2015, with financial support from the Russian Geographical Society.
