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Diplomat slams US establishment’s ‘deplorable’ efforts to censor social media

This problem should be discussed on an international level, Zakharova pointed out
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova Alexander Shcherbak/TASS
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova
© Alexander Shcherbak/TASS

MOSCOW, September 7. /TASS/. Russia considers the US establishment’s efforts to wield pressure on social media to be deplorable, said Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova at a briefing on Friday.

"Divulging information on all blocked accounts should be a crucial step here, and apart from the names of accounts, reasons must also be furnished as to why they were blocked," she said. "Amid continuous statements about Russia it would be curious to learn who is hiding all the time behind the name ‘Russia’ in these fake accounts."

"Due to the global aspect of the problem, we view the US administration’s efforts to exert pressure on social media as deplorable," the diplomat stressed. "Russia supports professional discourse, not a call on the carpet or demands to report on what was done for the US to remain ‘the only global superpower.’"

"This problem should be discussed globally," she said

Facebook earlier deleted 652 accounts, groups and pages for "coordinated inauthentic behavior" in this social media and apps for sharing photos and videos with Instagram elements. Facebook stated on August 21 that part of these actions were linked to Iran and Russia and that the deleted accounts, groups and pages could be linked to sources that the US government had earlier identified as Russian military intelligence services.

On July 31, Facebook stated that it managed to uncover new attempts to exert political pressure through publishing reports on fake pages ahead of the midterm election to the US Congress.