Staff Reporter;
Moscow (Parliament Times): The Foreign Ministry of the Russian Federation said it endorsed statement by the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation in connection with the violation of the principle of freedom of speech by global American Internet companies.
In a statement issued, the Russian foreign ministry expressed that the restrictive actions taken by the administration of American social media giants with regard to the content posted on their platforms had delivered a blow to the democratic system of values and the international information architecture. ‘The permissibility of arbitrary, without a court decision, and non-transparent censorship of media content by digital platforms puts in question the role of the state as the guarantor of compliance with international obligations on the freedom of expression by subjects under its jurisdiction. This is a violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Helsinki Final Act and other documents, which the United States signed,’ the statement mentioned.
It was also said that the American information technology (IT) giants were free to formulate the image of the communication infrastructure in the interests of their corporations and their curators, which was in complete disregard of the fundamental democratic and ethical norms. Further, Russia demanded that the media sphere must be regulated and codified as well as constructive dialogue must be established with all the interested parties for stimulating efforts to work out explicit requirements for transparent standards of social media content moderation and to formalize them in international documents.
On January 27, a US Embassy official was also summoned to the Foreign Ministry of Russia, where he was handed a protest note.