Facebook Banned in Russia | Hacker News Reader

Facebook Banned in Russia

interfax.ru

57 pointsushakov31 comments

Wish it would get banned in the United States, too

I know right. No longer having access to facebook seems like a societal good rather than something bad.

I wish people who wish facebook to be banned (or any other communication / news app) would be publically shamed in the USA.

This is a pretty strange take given the context. It’s the same 0 value “Facebook = bad” top comment which HN is often criticized for.

“Facebook gets banned because it allows the truth of the Ukrainian conflict to spread” highlights that despite many serious flaws, there may be some good in a platform which allows information to spread peer to peer.

ps. The announcement came through about an hour ago, so i'm posting a link to Interfax

Facebook got banned because they blocked Russian state media pages

they don't like that literally anybody on Facebook is allowed to post propaganda but them

propaganda != propaganda

They block propaganda of the government agencies of a country that is currently in the middle of hostile, widely condemned by the West, military operations in another sovereign European country.

It's also likely they blocked it because then non-state approved opinions about war can circulate more easily. They already shut down those few more free media that were left so it makes sense that they would crack down on alternative platforms too.

Did they censor the pages in Russia too?

Afair, it was them censoring them in EU

It got banned because FB refused to stop fact-checking state media posts.

Some time you need to take sides. Perhaps if that happened in 33, 34, 35... we would not have 39.

Looking forward to the rest of Europe following suit

haha was about to say the same thing

Blyat Ivan, the bots aren’t working, shut the whole access down

So now the deplatformers become the deplatformed.

i'm kinda shocked how ridiculous the whole situation is

Facebook: publishes propaganda

Russian state media: publishes propaganda

Facebook: blocks Russian state media so they can't publish propaganda

Russian government: blocks Facebook because Russian state media can't publish propaganda and Facebook publishes propaganda

Russia publishes disinformation. Different than propaganda.

How is Facebook publishing propoganda. It is a content distribution platform, not a creation one.

1. Facebook‘s „fact“ checkers defaming unconvenient truths as „fake news“

2. Facebook banning individual accounts for violation of selectively interpreted „community guidelines“

3. Facebook manually tweaking the recommendation algorithm to promote some topics and not others

…

Still on a completely different level than Russian state-based propaganda, of course, but Facebook is not „just a neutral platform“

yeah i'm gonna need a source on #1

wow, all those years of bending over backwards to appease them and they still banned them? I am shocked I tell you.

Facebook never bent to apease anyone you are confusing facebook with Google

They want to put the whole of Russia in a Truman show. It's really the most ambitious gaslighting project ever undertaken.

What about Whatsapp and other Meta products?

WhatsApp and Instagram are still enabled

Does anyone even use Facebook in russia?

Many people all the time. All my relatives and many of my friends.

Fair enough, but being on HN, I sincerely doubt you are a typical russian internet user.

Most Russian people I met only used vkontakte, and only used facebook because they either had a company to promote internationally, or studied abroad, somehow didn't end up in a typical russians-abroad clique, and wanted facebook "on the side" to keep in touch with their international friends (who are obviously not gonna be on vkontakte).

Also Twitter followed the same fate. I wonder whether "normal" people, those using FB but who have no idea of how to access the BBC via Tor, and that might support Putin, will see through such a huge ban.

Maybe it has something to do with Facebook temporarily unbanning the Azov Brigade as long as they fight the Russians?

FYI the Azov Brigade is a Neo-Nazi military unit fighting as an official part of the Ukrainian National guard.

https://theintercept.com/2022/02/24/ukraine-facebook-azov-ba...

I realize mine is an unpopular view. To be clear, I do not support Putin nor the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. I just find it uncomfortable that so many are suddenly willing to look the other way while Ukraine employs militant Nazi battalions in their own national guard.

I also find it unsettling that all of a sudden Facebook unbanned the Azov Brigade, a known terrorist organization, but only as long as they are fighting against Russia [0]. Principles are principles and I can't support this kind of hypocracy.

[0] https://theintercept.com/2022/02/24/ukraine-facebook-azov-ba...

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azov_Battalion

It's interesting that militant Nazi battalions are "the good guys" compared to the Russian invaders. Last time this matchup went down the Russians were the righteous. It's about survival for Ukraine, nothing else matters.

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