A Russian court on Monday upheld a March ruling that blamed social media company Meta for “extremist activity,” according to state news agency Tass, months after the country banned Facebook for restricting access to Russian media sites and Instagram for temporarily allowing users to express themselves. Hate speech against Russia in connection with its invasion of Ukraine.
The Moscow Municipal Court’s ruling comes two months after Meta appealed the ruling, which prevented social media from doing business in Russia and banned several of the company’s apps in the country.
The court also on Monday dismissed two court cases of Meta users who argued they were affected by the ban, which excludes Meta’s messaging app, WhatsApp.
The Facebook and Instagram move will remain banned in Russia for the foreseeable future.
A meta spokesperson responded to a request for comment.
In March, Russia opened a theft investigation against Meta, calling the company an “extremist” organization after reports surfaced that Facebook’s parent company had temporarily suspended its anti-hate speech regulations against Russia in March. the context of the war in Ukraine. The move allowed users to call for violence against Russians and Russian foot soldiers on Instagram. The company later clarified that the policy would not allow posts calling for the assassination of Russian leaders. The March resolution came after the Kremlin already had to restrict access to Facebook in February in reaction to the social network restricting access to some pro-Russian media accounts. Russia claimed the move violated “human rights and fundamental freedoms,” while Meta claimed Russia was blocking efforts to conduct independent fact-checking and label misleading content on Facebook. The Kremlin has tried to crack down on a host of social media sites, adding YouTube and Twitter, also banned in the country, after the platforms took steps to restrict the spread of Russian disinformation akin to the war in Ukraine.
Some reports suggest that the Russians tried to break social media bans on other information resources. On the eve of Russia’s Instagram ban in March, calls are being made for virtual personal networks (VPNs) that allow users to hide their location on censored internet sites higher. through more than 2000 percent, according to TOP10VPN, a virtual surveillance company.
Meta loses appeal to Russia over ‘extremist activity’ label -TASS (Reuters)
Russia says it will limit itself to Facebook, a main platform for dissent. (New York Times)