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Communications watchdog Roskomnadzor at the weekend threatened
Facebook with a minimum 1 million rouble ($13,433) fine and
demanded it restore access to content posted by TASS news
agency, RBC business daily and Vzglyad newspaper.
It said Facebook blocked posts pertaining to Russia's detention
of alleged supporters of a Ukrainian far-right group.
"I think this is unacceptable. It violates our national
legislation," said Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of the lower
house of Russia's parliament and a member of President Vladimir
Putin's United Russia ruling party.
In a statement, Volodin said Facebook had violated basic rights
to disseminate and receive information, and legislation would be
proposed to preserve Russia's "digital sovereignty."
Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Like other nations, including Australia in a high-profile
dispute with Facebook and India in a spat with Twitter, Russia
has in recent months taken steps to regulate and curb the power
of big social media companies.
Bills passed in December allow Russia to impose large fines on
platforms that do not delete banned content and to restrict
access to U.S. social media companies if they are deemed to
discriminate against Russian media.
"They operate in our environment but at the same time they often
don't obey any Russian laws," Russian Foreign Ministry
spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told RIA news agency on Monday.
($1 = 74.3400 roubles)
(Reporting by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber and Vladimir Soldatkin;
Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
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