Russia has banned Facebook, the world's largest social media site, and its subsidiaries Instagram and WhatsApp.
According to Reuters, Russia's regulator has confirmed that Meta's services have been shut down since the evening of March 4 due to repeated violations by Facebook.
Immediately after the regulator issued instructions, millions of Russians lost access to Facebook, while users also had difficulty accessing the company's subsidiary apps, such as Instagram and WhatsApp.
According to Russian officials, Facebook has committed 26 violations since October 2020, shutting down its service in the country.
On the other hand, a senior Meta official also confirmed in his tweet that Russian authorities had shut down the Facebook service across the country.
According to a Facebook official, millions of Russians are using the services of Facebook and its subsidiary apps on a daily basis to stay in touch with their loved ones and family, and the company should play a proactive role in reviving its service.
Russia has banned Facebook's service at a time when last week Facebook had restricted access to its media outlets, including a ban on Russian advertising.
Facebook imposed sanctions on Russian companies following Russia's February 24 attack on Ukraine.
In addition to Facebook, Twitter and Google also imposed sanctions on Russian companies and the government.
There are reports that Russian authorities have imposed a partial ban on Twitter in addition to Facebook, but no confirmation reports have been released.
Russia, on the other hand, has seen an increase in VPN software downloads since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and in just a few days, such software has been downloaded more than 1.4 million times.
Russia and its subsidiary WhatsApp and Instagram have more than 120 million users in Russia, and the number of Facebook users alone is close to 10 million.
Russia already has a partial ban on social apps such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and WhatsApp, where the Internet is not used freely.
