Russia Today Lodges Complain Against Facebook

In response to the censorship of its digital content project “Redfish,” the television network Russia Today (RT) asked the authorities of its country to monitor more carefully the actions of Facebook.

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This week, this California-based company suspended Redfish's account on Instagram. Given that this action was arbitrary, RT asked the Russian media regulator Roskomnadzor (RKN) and the Prosecutor General’s Office to take the pertinent measures in this type of case.

Facebook suspended the Redfish account arguing that it had violated the Instagram community standards. No other details were provided on the alleged unspecified violations.

The Redfish team, whose work is followed by over 419,000 people around the world, sees the closure of their account as yet another instance of censorship. Early this year, Redfish's page on Facebook was also suspended.

"It was restored after a threat of sanctions from RKN, but it remains heavily restricted, limiting its ability to reach out to new audiences," RT denounced, stressing that "Like other Silicon Valley giants, Facebook is notoriously inconsistent and opaque about its content moderation decisions."

The Russian network also recalled that "the Wall Street Journal revealed that the social network has a system which allegedly shields millions of higher-profile users from being sanctioned by algorithmic censors. The higher-tier accounts belong to people whom Facebook considers ‘newsworthy,’ ‘influential' or 'popular,’ and ‘PR risky’.”