Meta is barring Russian state media from running ads on its platforms

Meta is taking its own action against Russia in response to the country’s invasion of Ukraine.

As reported by Reuters, the company is banning Russian state media from runnings advertisements or monetization of any way on its platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Whatsapp. The banning will apply worldwide, essentially cutting off Russian state media from the media giant.

Nathaniel Gleicher, Meta’s security policy head, said that they will “also continue to apply labels to additional Russian state media” over the weekend.

“We also continue to apply labels to additional Russian state media. These changes have already begun rolling out and will continue into the weekend.”

He added, “We are now prohibiting Russian state media from running ads or monetizing on our platform anywhere in the world.”

Yesterday, Russia demanded that Meta stop fact-checking posts from Russian state media across the company’s social media platforms, something that the company refused. Nick Clegg, Meta’s VP of Global Affairs, said that Russia is now restricting the use of the company’s service for its citizens.

Yesterday, Russian authorities ordered us to stop the independent fact-checking and labelling of content posted on Facebook by four Russian state-owned media organizations. We refused. As a result, they have announced they will be restricting the use of our services.

Russia began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24. As of the writing of this article, Ukrainian forces are continuing to hold off a Russian offensive of its capital city of Kyiv. Many countries have announced additional sanctions against Russia and pledged more aid to Ukraine.