Facebook Parent Meta Bans State-Run Russian Accounts From Running Ads On Ukraine's Request

As part of its ongoing efforts amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Meta Platforms Inc (formerly Facebook) has banned several state-run accounts from Russia from monetising on the platform.

Facebook Parent Meta Bans State-Run Russian Accounts From Running Ads On Ukraine's Request/Getty

New Delhi: As part of its ongoing efforts amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Meta Platforms Inc (formerly Facebook) has banned several state-run accounts from Russia from monetising on the platform and from running advertisements from anywhere in the world. The social networking giant also mentioned that it was reviewing requests from other governments to bar access to Russian state-controlled accounts in their countries.

According to Meta's head of global affairs Nick Clegg, the company has banned Russian state media from running ads or monetising on the platform anywhere in the world.

"We are now prohibiting Russian state media from running ads or monetizing on our platform anywhere in the world. We also continue to apply labels to additional Russian state media. These changes have already begun rolling out and will continue into the weekend," Clegg wrote on Twitter on Sunday.

"We are closely monitoring the situation in Ukraine and will keep sharing steps we’re taking to protect people on our platform," Clegg added.

Apart from rolling out the Locked Profiles feature in crisis-hit Ukraine, Meta has also temporarily removed the ability to view and search the “Friends” list for Facebook accounts in Ukraine to help protect people from being targeted. The company also advises Facebook users outside Ukraine, who might have friends in the country, to help protect them by tightening their own visibility settings by following a few instructions. 

"We took down a network run by people in Ukraine and Russia targeting Ukraine for violating our policy against coordinated inauthentic behavior. They ran websites posing as independent news entities and created fake personas across many social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Telegram, Odnoklassniki and VK," Facebook said in a statement.

Instagram, also owned by Meta, has been rolling out a privacy and account security alert in Ukraine with specific steps on how to protect users' accounts.