According to the official notice, access to the page has been temporarily restricted for security reasons. Facebook support referred to the social network's Community Standards list, saying that the restriction was introduced due to "potential non-compliance" with the platform's policies. Facebook Concierge Support moderators did not provide a specific reason for the move, and continued to insist that certain features were blocked because of general violations.
Sputnik Arabic has never been blocked from posting on Facebook before, with recent posts falling easily within the guidelines set by the social network's Community Standards.
Since its launch, the news page indeed had its content marked as violating Facebook policies. It was a video about the life of Iranian top military official Qasem Soleimani, who was assassinated by a US drone attack, posted in January 2020.
The social network has also blocked several posts about the approval of Sputnik V vaccine in Russia and tagged them as misleading about the effectiveness of drugs during a pandemic.
Sputnik Arabic has an audience of two million people on Facebook.