The whole world has reacted to the war, in fact Meta has taken action on Ukraine , and it is that the giant of social networks has reacted in order to prevent its products from being used by the Russian front to attack Ukraine from the web . Many of these measures were requested by various governments of the European Union.
Among the main actions taken by Meta, specifically on Facebook, is to restrict access to RT and Sputnik throughout the European Union from its platform , since they are media affiliated with the Russian government.
This makes Meta in the middle of the war
From now on, Instagram users in Ukraine and Russia have encrypted one-on-one chats that guarantee privacy at all times, allowing them to communicate safely. They’ll also start displaying notifications at the top of direct message inboxes, letting people know they can switch to an encrypted conversation if they need to.
These conversations in encrypted chats is a function available for Facebook Messenger and is by default in the WhatsApp security settings , also owned by Meta. This feature is not available for business accounts on Instagram.
Likewise, Meta has responded to a request from the Ukrainian government to restrict access to several accounts on its platforms that are linked to Russian state media organizations . Likewise, they are reviewing requests to be able to restrict other media that are under the control of the Putin government.
Blocking fake news
One of the most forceful actions taken by Meta to guarantee free access to information for its users, inside and outside Ukraine or Russia, is the limitation of accounts and sites that pose as independent news outlets . These profiles have been creating fake personas on many social media platforms, from Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Telegram, Odnoklassniki, and VK.
The practice of Ghostwriter or ghost writer is also being limited and localized on Facebook. Different public, political and military figures in Ukraine have been victims of this practice; however, the security community has been tracking the publication of these false stories.
One of the tasks that Meta sets itself is to encourage the use of increased security measures to protect people in Ukraine and Russia , promoting the use of two-factor authentication. This type of security measures allows to protect the data in the middle of the Russian invasion, also, the platform continues to implement privacy and security measures to help people in Ukraine and Russia to protect their accounts from being attacked.
Meta located a network with about 40 accounts, pages and groups on Facebook and Instagram. This network was being operated from Russia and Ukraine , targeting people from Ukraine using multiple social media platforms and through their own websites.
Meta eliminated the operation, blocked their domains and also shared the information with other technology platforms, researchers and governments. The network was made up of about 4,000 Facebook accounts following one or more of its pages, and in the case of Instagram, 500 accounts following one or more accounts.
This operation has links to another network of attackers located in April 2020 , connected to individuals in Russia, the Donbass region of Ukraine, and two media organizations in Crimea, namely NewsFront and SouthFront.
