Russia to punish 'fake' war news, blocks Facebook, Twitter

Russian President Vladimir Putin has intensified a crackdown on media outlets and individuals who fail to hew to the Kremlin line on the war in Ukraine blocking Facebook and Twitter and signing into law a bill that criminalizes the intentional spreading of what Moscow deems to be fake reportsThe moves against the social media giants on Friday follow blocks imposed on the BBC the US governmentfunded Voice of America and Radio Free EuropeRadio Liberty German broadcaster Deutsche Welle and Latviabased website Meduza The governments sweeping action against the foreign outlets that publish news in Russian seeks to establish even tighter controls over what information the domestic audience sees about the invasion of UkraineThe state communications watchdog Roskomnadzor said it cut access to Twitter and Facebook in line with a decision by the prosecutor generals office The watchdog has previously accused Twitter of failing to delete the content banned by Russian authorities and slowed down access to it The bill quickly rubberstamped by both houses of the Kremlincontrolled parliament and signed by Putin imposes prison sentences of up to 15 years for those spreading information that goes against the Russian governments narrative on the warIn response multiple outlets said they would pause their work inside Russia to evaluate the situation Among them CNN said it would stop broadcasting in Russia while Bloomberg and the BBC said they would temporarily suspend the work of their journalists there Russian authorities have repeatedly decried reports of Russian military setbacks or civilian deaths in Ukraine as fake news State media outlets refer to Russias invasion of Ukraine as a special military operation rather than a war or an invasionVyacheslav Volodin the speaker of the lower house of parliament said the measure will force those who lied and made statements discrediting our armed forces to bear very grave punishment I want everyone to understand and for society to understand that we are doing this to protect our soldiers and officers and to protect the truth he addedThe law envisages sentences of up to three years or fines for spreading what authorities deem to be false news about the military but the maximum punishment rises to 15 years for cases deemed to have led to severe consequencesIn blocking Facebook Roskomnadzor cited its alleged discrimination of the Russian media and state information resources The agency said in a statement that the restrictions introduced by Facebook owner Meta on the Russian news channel RT and other statecontrolled media violate Russian lawNick Clegg Metas president of global affairs tweeted in response to Russias action that millions of ordinary Russians will find themselves cut off from reliable information deprived of their everyday ways of connecting with family and friends and silenced from speaking out We will continue to do everything we can to restore our services so they remain available to people to safely and securely express themselves and organize for action Clegg added The Russian media blocks on the five foreign media organisations are among the most influential and often critical foreign media publishing in RussianRoskomnadzor said those media had published false information on subjects including the methods of carrying out combat activities attacks on civilians strikes on civil infrastructure the numbers of losses of the Russian Federation Armed Forces and victims among the civilian population BBC DirectorGeneral Tim Davie said the legislation appears to criminalize the process of independent journalism The safety of our staff is paramount and we are not prepared to expose them to the risk of criminal prosecution simply for doing their jobs he saidDavie said the BBCs Russianlanguage news service would continue to operate from outside Russia Earlier in the day the BBC posted instructions on Twitter about how Russian readers could work around the block by using apps or the dark web Access to accurate independent information is a fundamental human right which should not be denied to the people of Russia millions of whom rely on BBC News every week We will continue our efforts to make BBC News available in Russia and across the rest of the world the BBC said Earlier this week the BBC said it was bringing back shortwave radio transmission to Ukraine and parts of Russia so people can listen to its programs with basic equipmentSome wellknown media outlets within Russia have chosen to close rather than face heavy restrictions on what they can report News website Znak said it was closing Friday morning shortly after the parliament approved the draft bill On Thursday Russias top independent radio station Ekho Moskvy was closed and independent TV station Dozdh suspended operations after receiving a threat of closure from the authoritiesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its 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