Russian Lawmaker Questions Facebook's Assurances Of Commitment To Speech Freedom

Russian Lawmaker Questions Facebook's Assurances of Commitment to Speech Freedom

Facebook's assurances of being committed to freedom of speech cannot be trusted, the head of the Russian lower house's investigative commission on foreign interference, Vasily Piskarev, said on Wednesday, commenting on a recent blocking of accounts that originate from Russia

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th February, 2020) Facebook's assurances of being committed to freedom of speech cannot be trusted, the head of the Russian lower house's investigative commission on foreign interference, Vasily Piskarev, said on Wednesday, commenting on a recent blocking of accounts that originate from Russia.

On Wednesday, Facebook said that it had removed three account networks originating from Russia, Iran, Myanmar and Vietnam, for violating its policy that bans government interference and coordinated, inauthentic behavior. According to the company, each of these networks of accounts was created "to mislead others about who they were and what they were doing."

"Facebook's assurances of commitment to freedom of speech are not confirmed by its actions. By selectively blocking the pages of individual users, the US social network has once again demonstrated double standards," Piskarev told reporters.

Facebook's policy toward Russia has been repeatedly criticized in Moscow. In one of the most recent incidents, Russian Foreign Minister spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Facebook was disseminating fake news after CEO Mark Zuckerberg told NBC News in an October interview that the company had thwarted new interference campaigns from Russia, China and Iran that could have allegedly become the groundwork for meddling efforts during the 2020 presidential election in the United States.

Russian officials have repeatedly denied meddling in the US election, saying the allegations were invented to excuse election losses and deflect public attention from actual instances of electoral fraud and corruption.