Ukraine invasion: Meta restricts Russia from running Facebook ads amid row over media censorship

Meta said it is barring Russian state media from running ads or monetising on its platform anywhere in the world, the parent company of social media giant Facebook said on Friday.

"We also continue to apply labels to additional Russian state media," its security policy head, Nathaniel Gleicher, said on Twitter.

"These changes have already begun rolling out and will continue into the weekend.

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

Moscow accused Facebook of censorship of Russian media on Friday and said it would be partially limiting access to the social media platform, the latest in a series of steps against US social media giants and announced a day after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Russia has been trying to exert tighter control over the Internet and Big Tech for years, something critics say threatens individual and corporate freedom, and is part of a wider crackdown against outspoken opponents of the Kremlin.

Facebook has been a key platform to voice dissent in Russia, and the move to limit it also comes as police crackdown on anti-war street protests in cities across the country.

The Russian state communications regulator said Facebook had ignored its demands to lift restrictions on four Russian media outlets on its platform - RIA news agency, the Defence Ministry's Zvezda TV, and websites gazeta.ru and lenta.ru.

Meta's Head of Global Affairs, Nick Clegg, said in a statement on Twitter: "Yesterday, Russian authorities ordered us to stop the independent fact-checking and labeling of content posted to Facebook by four Russian state-owned media organizations. We refused. As a result, they have announced they will be restricting the use of our