What to do when blocked by Facebook
Some Western services are becoming practically inaccessible to users from Our Country. We explain how you can access Facebook from Our Country

On March 21, 2022, the Tver Court of Moscow recognized the American company Meta as an extremist organization. Social networks Facebook* and Instagram* are blocked on the territory of the Federation.

Why is access to Facebook* restricted in Our Country?

It all started with the fact that on February 24, Roskomnadzor (which controls information on the network and the media) announced that four media were blocked on the American social network at once – the Zvezda TV channel, RIA Novosti, and the Lenta.ru websites. ru” and “Gazeta.ru”1. The department reminded about the prevention of media censorship and demanded that the leadership of Facebook * explain their actions. There was no answer.

Therefore, on February 25, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Our Country admitted that the social network was involved in the violation of human rights and freedoms. On the same day, Roskomnadzor and the Prosecutor General’s Office partially restricted access to the social network from Our Country. At first, this was done by artificially slowing down Facebook*. It is noteworthy that the foreign Twitter service also faced the restoration of such restrictions on March 1. On March 4, 2022, access to Facebook* and Twitter was completely blocked in Our Country. On March 21, Meta was recognized as an extremist organization, social networks Facebook* and Instagram* were blocked in Our Country, but the WhatsApp messenger was not sanctioned.

However, citizens and legal entities will not be held liable for using Facebook* and Instagram*. But doing business using these sites will be considered financing extremist activities.

According to Mediascope analysts, from February to April 2022, the average daily reach of users from Our Country on Facebook and Instagram (mobile and desktop devices) has more than halved2. The financial loss of direct revenue of an American company from blocking in Our Country has already been estimated at $ 2 billion in 20223. True, this can hardly be called a serious blow to the company’s financial performance. So, according to the data for 2021, the company’s revenue amounted to 33.7 billion dollars.4.

What is the difference between blocking and slowing down traffic?

The answer lies in the question itself. At traffic slowdown, as was the case with Twitter in the fall of 2021 and with Facebook* at the end of February 2022, access to the service technically remains. All functions are available to users – correspondence, comments, news search and so on. However, most likely you will only see text. All images and videos will take too long to load. It is possible to use this kind of Facebook *, but it is extremely inconvenient.

Full lock Facebook* in Our Country began on March 4 as a response to the blocking of media. In this case, providers block the IP address, the exact URL of the page, or the entire domain.  

How to delete a Facebook account*  

After the American social network was blocked on the territory of the Federation, some users wanted to delete their account on Facebook*. Unfortunately, the social network does not have a separate support service, so now you can only deactivate or delete a page on the social network site. 

  1. On the site, select “Settings” in the upper right corner.
  2. In the “Your information on Facebook *” menu, click on the “View” button opposite the “Deactivation and deletion” item.
  3. Select “Delete Account” and continue.
  4. Then you will need to click “Delete account” again and confirm your identity with your Facebook password*.
  5. After that, the page will be permanently deleted only after 30 days.

The Healthy Food Near Me correspondent contacted Facebook technical support *, but at the time of publication of the material there was no response from them. 

When can Facebook be unblocked in Our Country*

officials and deputies do not exclude that over time the social network can be unblocked on the territory of the country. Of course, before that, Meta* management will need to stop violating law. On May 17, this was announced by the press secretary of the President of the Federation Dmitry Peskov. 

According to a Kremlin spokesman, in order to restore normal operation in Our Country, the company’s management needs to remove illegal content (in particular, with calls for violence against citizens) and open its official representative office in the Federation.

Alexander Khinshtein, head of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, also agrees with Peskov’s position. The deputy allowed the company’s social networks to be unblocked after it changes its policy towards citizens. In this case, the initiative should come from the Meta organization itself.

Sources of

  1. https://rkn.gov.ru/news/rsoc/news74108.htm
  2. https://t.me/dnative_sklad/163
  3. https://www.forbes.ru/tekhnologii/460625-analitiki-ocenili-poteri-priznannoj-ekstremistskoj-meta-ot-blokirovki-v-rossii
  4. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/meta-reports-fourth-quarter-and-full-year-2021-results-301474305.html

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