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Russia to urge UN to adopt standards for online behavior

Moscow will work to ensure that standards for Internet conduct are established at the UN

MOSCOW, April 5. /TASS/. Moscow will work to ensure that standards for Internet conduct are established at the UN, Russian Communications Minister Nikolai Nikiforov said, commenting on the blocking of a number of Facebook accounts.

"We have been proposing an international convention be adopted at the United Nations platform that would lay the groundwork for Internet conduct standards," he said. "The reason is that our foreign counterparts, particularly the Americans - it is typical of them to employ double standards - biasedly using the norms and rules that they very much like to trumpet on about," the Russian minister noted, adding that Moscow planned to seek ensuring responsible behavior on the web.

At the same time, Nikiforov pointed out that since Facebook was a company registered in the United States, it was subject to American legislation. "There is no use believing that the Internet is a space free from laws," he added.

According to earlier reports, Russia’s Federal News Agency’s Facebook and Instagram accounts were blocked without explanation.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg earlier announced the removal of over 270 pages and accounts operated by Russia’s Internet Research Agency.