Facebook restores previously banned ‘Russia-linked’ pages a week after taking them down
Facebook has restored four popular pages related to Russia's RT news channel after abruptly suspending them last week.
Facebook made the decision after the pages complied with the social media giant’s order to “disclose the affiliation of their Pages with its parent companies,” according to a Facebook spokesperson speaking to The Hill on Monday.
"The required information has now been added to the About section of these Pages to indicate their affiliation with RT and Ruptly so people can learn who's behind the Pages they're interacting with on Facebook," said the spokesperson.
The Facebook pages of InTheNow, Soapbox, Back Then and Waste-Ed – were run by a Germany-based company named Maffick Media.
RT has reported the media company to be 51 percent owned by RT's video agency Ruptly, with the other 49 percent belonging to Maffick CEO Anissa Naouai, an American journalist of Tunisian descent, who formerly worked as a reporter and presenter for the Russian news channel.
The social media pages, which provided alternative political and social content, were suspended shortly after CNN ran a report about the media company’s alleged ties to Russia, leading Facebook to suspend the pages without any prior notice, according to Naouai.
Naouai has suggested the measures have highlighted the social media giant’s increasingly discriminatory behavior towards a growing number of alternative media outlets and accounts.
.@IntheNow_tweet and all Maffick pages are back on @facebook after putting an unprecedented disclaimer in our about section. Literally the only page to ever be required to do this. Here’s to paving the way?! pic.twitter.com/w9Ki0fYREv
— Anissa Naouai (@AnissaNow) February 25, 2019
This is not the first time that Facebook and Twitter have cracked down on freedom of information, shutting down pages on allegations that they have been connected to Iran or Russia or after accusing them of “disseminating” anti-West propaganda.
Back in August 2018, Facebook targeted hundreds of accounts allegedly tied to Iran and Russia under the pretext of fighting what it calls “misinformation” campaigns.
Among the accounts was one belonging to the Quest 4 Truth (Q4T) Iranian media organization, which promotes Islamic values.
A similar move was taken by Google against 39 YouTube channels at the time.
The channels reportedly belonged to the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), which condemned the move as a “coordinated” campaign and a "clear example of censorship" aimed at preventing the dissemination of truth and alternative viewpoints online.
In September 2018, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif harshly criticized Twitter for blocking the accounts of "real Iranians" but overlooking the "regime change" propaganda spewing out of Washington.
Hello @Jack. Twitter has shuttered accounts of real Iranians, incl TV presenters & students, for supposedly being part of an 'influence op'. How about looking at actual bots in Tirana used to prop up 'regime change' propaganda spewed out of DC? #YouAreBots https://t.co/dTs0diYrM4
— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) September 16, 2018
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