Russia Tags Meta ‘Terrorist and Extremist’ group

Moscow: Russia on Tuesday added U.S. tech giant Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, to a loss of “terrorist and extremist” organizations, according to a database of the Federal Service for Financial Monitoring.

Russia banned Facebook and Instagram for “carrying out extremist activities” after authorities accused Meta of tolerating “Russophobia” during Russia’s military campaign in neighboring Ukraine in late March.

Meta had announced on 10th March that the platforms would allow statements like “death to Russian invaders” but not credible threats against civilians, before saying the change only applied to users posting from Ukraine.

Facebook and Instagram have been banned in Russia since March, but many Russians resorted to VPNs to keep using the social media Network. The ban does not apply in the case of WhatsApp.

Prominent human rights lawyer Pavel Chikov said the latest move “in itself, did not change anything” but was a reminder of the risks associated with using Meta apps “considering prosecutors are being proactive.”