A court in Moscow banned popular social media platforms Facebook and Instagram calling them “extremist”. The Russian authorities have accused US tech giant Meta — the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp — of tolerating “Russophobia” since President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine on February 24.
Facebook and Twitter have been inaccessible in Russia since early March and Instagram was blocked in the country a week ago.
Moscow’s Tverskoi district court acceded to a request from prosecutors for the two social media platforms to be banned for “carrying out extremist activities”.
The court said that Meta’s WhatsApp messenger service would not be prohibited because it is not used to post public statements.
There was no immediate comment from Meta.
During Monday’s hearing, Russia’s FSB security service accused Meta of working against the interests of Moscow and its army during the conflict.
“The activities of the Meta organisation are directed against Russia and its armed forces,” FSB representative Igor Kovalevsky told the court in a statement reported by Russian news agencies.
“We ask (the court) to ban Meta’s activities and oblige it to implement this ruling immediately,” he said.
Meta had announced on March 10 that the platforms would allow statements like “death to Russian invaders” but not credible threats against civilians.
But in what appeared to be damage control, Meta’s global affairs president, Nick Clegg, later said the laxer rules would only apply to people posting from inside Ukraine.
(With inputs from agencies)
