Facebook has come under fire in the wake of new reports that it has been bowing to Russian and Chinese censorship demands, the
Washington Free Beacon reported Monday.
On Saturday, Facebook reportedly bowed to Moscow's insistence that it restrict access to a page calling for a demonstration supporting Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, who has become one of President Vladimir Putin's most prominent critics.
The page was set up on Friday after prosecutors recommended that Navalny be sentenced to 10 years in prison in a criminal case which the dissident's supporters claim is "purely politically motivated,"
The Washington Post reported.
Russian authorities demanded that Facebook remove the Navalny page pursuant to a law that went into effect earlier this year enabling the government to block access to pages which encourage unauthorized protests that would "infringe the public order." A spokesman for Russia's Internet regulator said this weekend that the social media site was complying with Moscow's demands.
Earlier this month, the
London Telegraph reported that Facebook was accused of kowtowing to Beijing.
When Chinese Internet czar Lu Wei recently visited the company's offices in Silicon Valley, state media reported that company founder Mark Zuckerberg had a copy of President Xi Jinping’s book on his desk and had reportedly purchased copies for his employees.
Zuckerberg reportedly told the Chinese that he wanted his Facebook colleagues "to understand socialism with Chinese characteristics."
Communist authorities have blocked Facebook access in China since 2009, and Zuckerberg has been lobbying authorities for access.
"Zuckerberg is an Internet genius, the founder of the Facebook empire," prominent dissident Hu Jia said. "Yet his understanding of Chinese politics is like that of a three-year-old." Hu said Chinese dissidents had reacted with "disappointment and anger" at what he termed Zuckerberg's "brown-nosing" of communist authorities.
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