The parent company of Instagram and Facebook, Meta, has been added to a list of organizations engaged in terrorism and extremism by Russia’s financial authority, the latest escalation against the firm since President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine.
Russian authorities have introduced yet another measure to regulate social media usage in the nation.
Details about Russia included Meta on its list of organizations groups of terrorism and extremism:
The US giant Meta, which is the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, has now been added to the list of terrorist and extremist organizations maintained by its financial monitoring agency, Rosfinmonitoring.
Facebook and Instagram are no longer accessible from Moscow, but many Russians still use virtual private networks (VPNs), the demand for which increased in March when some Western internet sites were blocked.
Officials have frequently stated that the label of “extremist” does not apply to Meta’s WhatsApp messaging service.
However, users of Facebook and Instagram have reportedly received warnings regarding some posts, according to lawyers and digital rights organizations.
Rosfinmonitoring, Russia’s Federal Financial Monitoring Service, made an announcement, according to the official Tass news agency. The list of organizations and people about whom there is knowledge of their involvement in extremist activity or terrorism has been updated, according to Rosfinmonitoring.
Meta did not respond to the most recent step taken by the Russian authorities. As part of the Kremlin’s campaign against western social media firms, a Russian court in March barred Facebook and Instagram from operating in the nation and branded its parent company, Meta, as “extremist.” The move only applied to users posting from within Ukraine, it was clarified after Meta said the platforms would let words like “death to Russian invaders,” but not real threats against civilians.
The prohibition was maintained by a Moscow court in June despite Meta’s appeal. According to the judgment made on Tuesday, Meta is now included among right-wing nationalist organizations, foreign “terrorist organizations,” like the Taliban, and Russian opposition organizations.
