Russia appears to have blocked access to the BBC and Facebook as President Vladimir Putin restricts the public from viewing Western media.
Strict sanctions have been put in place against Russia following its invasion of the Ukraine that has hit all areas of the economy hard and impacted on the day to day life of people in the country.
And it seems as though the Russian state has hit back by blocking the BBC and Facebook, although this has not been confirmed.
BBC Russia has said there have been reports there are problems accessing its website in Russia but the Kremlin has not said so far that it has banned the outlet.
And BBC Russia also said the domain https://bbc.com has not been added to the registry of banned sites but the German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle reported, in Russian, that the BBC site was not working in Russia.
According to a tweet posted by BBC Russian in Russian and translated into English, Meta (formerly known as Facebook) also appears to be blocked in the country.
The series of tweets stated: "Block tracking services report that there are problems accessing the BBC Russian Service website in Russia.
"The domain https://bbc.com is not listed in Roskomnadzor's registry of banned sites."
Also apparently blocked are the Russian- and English-language online newspaper and news aggregator Meduza, the US government-funded broadcaster Radio Liberty and Google Play.
Roskomnadzor is the Kremlin's Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media which maintains a official mandatory list of sites banned in Russia.
It comes after the Kremlin accused the BBC of playing a "determined role in undermining the Russian stability and security".
Foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova condemned the banning of Russian media RT and Sputnik, claiming the world was being deprived of Russia's point of view and Western media was only giving one side.
Her comments came hours after calls from UK Government figures to ban the Kremlin-backed state broadcaster.
According to a translation from RT, Ms Zakharova said the only reason Russian journalists could still work in the UK was "related to London fears that (the) BBC might be targeted in Russia because it plays a determined role in undermining the Russian stability and security".
She said: "We haven't invented that because it stems from the statement by the British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss."
Responding to her comments, a spokesman for the Prime Minister said: "You know the PM's spoken before about the importance of an independent press and the fact that it's important that the BBC is editorially independent and can continue to do the excellent work that they do."
It comes as UK watchdog Ofcom opened 27 investigations into the "due impartiality" of programmes broadcast on RT news channel, formerly known as Russia Today.
Speaking in the House of Commons on Thursday, Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries said RT should lose its licence and "never again" be able to broadcast "poisonous propaganda".
Meanwhile, Truss warned on Monday that the BBC risked being banned in Russia if RT was shut down in the UK.
She said a "careful judgement" was required as retaliatory action against the BBC would harm efforts to ensure Russians "hear the truth" about the invasion of Ukraine.
In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Russia tweeted: "Zakharova: Over the past few days, the real rather than the declared merit of the so-called Western values has become crystal clear.
"What is happening now in the information landscape is actually depriving Russia of any opportunity to convey its point of view."
The BBC has seen a surge in the Russian language service being used following the Ukraine invasion. The year-to-date weekly average audience for the broadcaster's Russian language news website has more than tripled, according to the corporation.
Since sanctions have hit in Russia some goods will also no longer be available with international companies deciding to stop supply including Apple who have paused the sale of all its physical products from iPhones to Macbooks.
Apple have also restricted access to digital services including Apple Pay in Russia and media outlets like Russia Today and Sputnik News can no longer be downloaded from the App Store outside Russia.
At the same time Google has said it has blocked RT and Sputnik from its Play store while Twitter, Facebook’s owner Meta and YouTube have said they have blocked the channels within Europe.
Facebook and BBC have been contacted for comment.
