Russia may block Facebook, YouTube over 'censorship'

MOSCOW

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday signed into law a bill authorizing restrictive measures against online platforms censoring Russian media.

The law states that if foreign social networks limit access to, or block content by Russian media due to race, nationality, or political affiliation, Russian regulators can retaliate by blocking, slowing down traffic, or fining the respective platforms.

The measures can be applied simultaneously and could affect US tech giants such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.

According to the law, the prosecutor general, in coordination with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, will be able to assign a foreign site the status of "allowing censorship of Russian media."

The status can be repealed in case of a change to the "discriminative policy."

The US web platforms in recent months have blocked dozens of Russian websites and accounts, accusing them of spreading disinformation.

Russia's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said US social media networks and video hosting websites "unilaterally and arbitrarily conduct political censorship of Russian media accounts."

Google wants to maintain the supremacy of western media, which once dominated the information space, she claimed.

Earlier, she condemned Twitter's move to label accounts affiliated with the Russian state, saying it did not mark any western media outlet as affiliated with the government.