Facebook suspends three pages from Russia-linked viral video firm
- Monday, February 18th, 2019
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Facebook has stepped up its crackdown on content originating from Russia, going after pages with significantly more reach than the accounts it has removed in the past. The social network’s latest purge saw it suspended three pages from Maffick Media, a viral video company which is majority owned by Russia-backed RT’s Ruptly subsidiary.
The three pages suspended by Facebook are Soapbox, which focuses on current affairs; Waste-Ed, an environment channel; and Backthen, a history channel with a focus on ‘western imperialism’.
The reason behind the suspension is that none of the pages disclose any information about their parent company. Traditionally, Facebook doesn’t require information about parent companies but, in this case, it believes that users deserve more transparency over where the content is coming from.
“People connecting with Pages shouldnt be misled about whos behind them,” a Facebook spokesperson told CNN. “Just as weve stepped up our enforcement of coordinated inauthentic behaviour and financially motivated spam over the past year, well continue improving so people can get more information about the Pages they follow.”
Prior to Facebook’s suspensions, J. Ray Sparks, Maffick’s COO, told CNN that the company is editorially independent of RT and referred to it being standard not to disclose ownership of a Facebook page.
In addition to suspending the three Maffick pages, Facebook has also done the same to the page for RT’s In the Now.
On Twitter, In the Now host Rania Khalek accused Facebook of double standards, highlighting that the same disclosures have not been demanded of other media outlets. And goes as far as accusing CNN of colluding with US government-funded organisations to get the pages banned.