Follow us on Telegram for the latest updates: https://t.me/mothershipsg

The Russian government is stepping up attempts to shape public opinion about its war of aggression against Ukraine with new decrees and laws aimed at both traditional and social media.

Facebook recently removed RT (formerly known as Russia Today) and Sputnik content from its platform, with Instagram doing the same, within Europe after a European Union directive. The two social media platforms did the same for the UK.

In retaliation, Russian state media regulator Roskomnadzor announced it will block access to Facebook for anyone within Russia's borders, The Guardian reported.

It later decided to restrict access to Twitter to at least some people in Russia.

While announcing a partial ban on Facebook previously, the regulator claimed that the social network had violated the "rights and freedoms" of Russian nationals.

However, The Washington Post reported that at least for now, Instagram and WhatsApp will not be banned.

The Guardian quoted Nick Clegg of Facebook's parent company Meta, who said that the move would silence millions of Russians from speaking out.

15-year jail term for news that "discredit" Russia's military

In addition, Russia's Duma, or parliament, passed a law that punishes people from spreading intentional false news about the military.

Nikkei Asia quoted the chairman of the Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, who said that the law would punish anyone who lied or made statements that discredit Russia's armed forces.

This has prompted international media outlets with journalists based in Russia to temporarily halt their operations for fear of reprisal.

Bloomberg to temporarily halt work of its journalists in Russia: “The change to the criminal code makes it impossible to continue any semblance of normal journalism inside the country,” says Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait. https://t.co/ZQo3rxu43w via @business

— Reto Gregori (@RetoGregori) March 4, 2022

According to The Guardian, the Russian government has ordered independent media outlets to only refer to government sources for information about the war, and refrain from referring to the invasion as an "attack", "invasion" or "war".

Al-Jazeera also reported Roskomnadzor warning that referring to the ongoing military campaign as an “invasion”, “attack” or “declaration of war” will lead to the offending website being blocked.

ABC reported that the website would remain blocked unless they removed the offending material.

Russian president Vladimir Putin initially declared that Russia was launching a "special military operation".

Related story:

Top image by Daniil Zameshaev on Unsplash.

Follow and listen to our podcast here