Tech Brief: The Big Tech Problem in Russia

[A recurring feature on the latest in Science & Technology.]

• Meta Platforms has announced that it's curtailing Russian state media access to Facebook in Ukraine. The development comes as Facebook content servers face restrictions on Russia's leading internet providers, shortly after the country blocks Twitter as part of its efforts to control the narrative on social media platforms over its invasion of Ukraine.
• "The restrictions are in effect across multiple providers rendering both social media platforms largely unusable, and come as Russian authorities and social media platforms clash over platform rules in relation to the invasion of Ukraine," NetBlocks said.
• Russia's internet regulator has also demanded that Google remove all restrictions on Russian-language YouTube channels of media outlets RBC, TV Zvezda and Sputnik in Ukraine, after the video company said it's "pausing a number of channels' ability to monetize on YouTube, including several Russian channels affiliated with recent sanctions," which have also prevented customers of sanctioned Russian banks to use their cards with Apple Pay and Google Pay abroad or to make online payments.
• This is not the first time social media companies are in a standoff with governments on censorship and it's won't be the last. Worse, there's no easy solution.
• Companies and social media platforms are increasingly facing demands from governments to block content deemed as "propaganda" and stifle dissent, failing which they risk being booted off of the local internet entirely.
• If anything, Russia's invasion of Ukraine could accelerate the fracturing of the internet – aka the splinternet – amid pressure on U.S. tech giants from both Russia and the West to respond to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.