ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- Members of a Facebook group that opposes expensive recycling fees imposed by the Kazakh government, especially those on cars and other vehicles, have had their accounts on the platform either removed or restricted, the group said, attributing the moves to government pressure.
Activists with the No To Recycling Fees (Nyetutilsboru) group authored a petition earlier this year calling for recycling fees on imported goods to be lowered to nominal rates, forcing a public hearing and a government review of the policy after the petition gained more than 50,000 signatures.
While the group has questioned all recycling fees, it is especially concerned about those imposed on cars and agricultural vehicles. The activists say that the charges have artificially inflated the cost of vehicles sold in Kazakhstan, benefiting only a small group of automakers whose factories they argue are not internationally competitive.
Kazakhstan's government cut recycling fees in half and effectively liquidated the private company set up to collect them in 2022, but they are still high by global standards, often amounting to thousands of dollars per vehicle.
After the July 15 hearing, Kazakhstan's Industry Ministry ruled to keep recycling fees on goods such as cars at their current levels, dismissing the group's arguments as baseless.
No To Recycling Fees activists have said that they would continue their campaign.
But they now complain that multiple administrators of their Facebook group have been forced to restore accounts or create new ones in recent weeks, while Facebook has sent the group repeated warnings over the content of their posts.
Administrator Vladimir Kim said on August 28 that he and four other administrators had lost access to their Facebook accounts over alleged copyright infringements.
"The Facebook office in [Kazakhstan] is simply following the authorities' orders," Kim wrote from a new account that he created this month.
Both Facebook and Instagram are owned by Meta, which did not respond to a request for comment.
A representative of the Culture and Information Ministry contacted by RFE/RL on August 29 denied any role in the removal and restriction of accounts related to the group.
Kazakhstan has a special agreement with Facebook that allows the government to remove content it deems "harmful."
Under the agreement, authorities in Kazakhstan can access Facebook's internal content-reporting system.
The joint agreement between Kazakhstan and Meta Platforms, reached in 2021, came after Astana threatened to block the social media giant's millions of local users. It is the first of its kind in Central Asia.
