Russia bans Facebook and Instagram
A Russian court on Monday banned social media giants Facebook and Instagram for “extremism”, a move taken as Moscow seeks total control of online information amid an offensive in Ukraine.
“The court has satisfied a lawsuit filed by the First Deputy Prosecutor General against the holding company Meta Platforms Inc. relating to the prohibition of its activities on Russian territory,” the court said.
Facebook and Instagram, owned by Meta, are therefore “banned for extremist activity,” the court added in a statement posted on Telegram.
This prohibition does not, however, target the messaging application WhatsApp, also owned by Meta, the court having found that it was not used as a means of “public dissemination of information”.
Attack kills Holocaust survivor
A 96-year-old holocaust survivor from Ukraine has died in Kharkiv under Russian shelling. According to what the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation claimed on Twitter, Boris Romanchenko survived a series of Nazi concentration camps.
“We are shocked to confirm the violent death of Boris Romanchenko, whose niece informed us on Monday morning that he died last Friday after a bomb or rocket hit the multi-storey building where he lived in Kharkiv and that his apartment was burned down,” a spokesperson for the German Foundation told the daily. The Guardian.
According to regional emergency services, more than 500 people have been killed in Kharkiv since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began on February 24.
Fears of cyberattacks
Fearing sanctions retaliation, US President Joe Biden has called on US businesses to protect themselves, “based on ever-changing intelligence data that the Russian state is considering different avenues of potential cyberattacks”.
According to the White House, essential infrastructure mainly operated and owned by the American private sector could be targeted.
He pledged that his administration “will continue to use all tools to deter, disrupt and, if necessary, respond to cyberattacks on critical infrastructure.” But the president acknowledged in a statement that “the federal government cannot defend itself against this threat alone.”
“Most of America’s critical infrastructure is privately owned and operated, and critical infrastructure owners and operators must accelerate efforts to lock down their digital doors,” he said.
Moscow threatens to cut diplomatic ties
The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Monday that President Biden had brought Russian-American relations “to the brink of rupture” with his “unworthy” statements aimed at Vladimir Putin, whom he called a “war criminal”.
The US ambassador has been summoned to Moscow for a meeting regarding “recent unacceptable statements” by Mr Biden. “It has been pointed out that remarks such as those of the US president, which are unbecoming of such a high-ranking state figure, bring Russian-US relations to the brink of rupture,” the ministry said in a statement. .
The Pentagon echoed the president’s accusations on Monday. John Kirby, spokesman for the Department of Defense, said the United States saw “clear evidence that Russian forces are committing war crimes”.
Anne-Marie Provost with Agence France-Presse