Russia intensifies crackdown on 'fake' reports, blocks Twitter, Facebook  

As Russia continues to make advances in Ukraine, a crackdown on media outlets and individuals, who fail to toe the Kremlin line on the invasion has intensified.

Facebook and Twitter have been blocked on Friday. And a new law has come up that criminalises the intentional spreading of what Moscow deems to be 'fake' reports.

Not just this, blocks have already been imposed on the BBC, German broadcaster Deutsche Welle, the US government-funded Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Latvia-based website Meduza.

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The action against the foreign outlets looks to establish tighter controls over what information the domestic audience witnesses about Ukraine’s invasion.

Roskomnadzor, state communications watchdog, said that it has cut access to Twitter and Facebook in line with a decision by the prosecutor general's office.

The bill was quickly approved by both houses of the Kremlin-controlled parliament and signed by Putin. It imposes prison sentences of up to 15 years for people spreading information that goes against the Russian government's narrative on the invasion.

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In the response, several outlets have said that they would pause their work inside Russia to evaluate the current situation. CNN said that it would stop broadcasting in Russia, while Bloomberg and the BBC have said that they would temporarily suspend the work of their journalists in the country.

Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the lower house of parliament, said the measure "will force those, who lied and made statements discrediting our armed forces to bear very grave punishment.”

"I want everyone to understand, and for society to understand, that we are doing this to protect our soldiers and officers, and to protect the truth," Volodin added.

(With inputs from agencies)