Russian Court Upholds Ban On Meta For ‘Extremist’ Activities

Topline

A Russian court on Monday upheld a March ruling that social media company Meta was guilty of “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 hate speech against Russia in the context of its invasion of Ukraine.

Key Facts

The decision from the Moscow City Court comes two months after Meta appealed the ruling, which blocked the social media giant from conducting business in Russia and banned several of the company’s apps within the country.

The court on Monday also dismissed two complaints from Meta users who argued they were impacted by the ban, which excludes Meta’s popular messaging app WhatsApp.

The decision means Facebook and Instagram will continue be banned in Russia for the foreseeable future.

A spokesperson for Meta did not respond to a request for comment.

Key Background

Russia in March opened a criminal investigation against Meta and labeled the company an “extremist” organization after reports emerged the Facebook parent company had temporarily suspended its hate speech rules against Russia in the context of the Ukraine war. The move allowed users to call for violence against Russians and Russian soldiers on Instagram. The company later clarified the policy would not allow posts that call for the murder of Russian leaders. The March ruling came after the Kremlin had already moved to limit access to Facebook in February in response to the social media site restricting access to some pro-Russia news media accounts. Russia claimed the move violated “fundamental human rights and freedoms,” while Meta argued Russia was blocking efforts to conduct independent fact checks and label misleading content on Facebook. The Kremlin has attempted to clamp down on a host of social media sites, including YouTube and Twitter—which is also banned in the country—after the platforms took action to restrict the spread of Russian disinformation related to the Ukraine war.

Tangent

Some reports suggest Russians have tried to break through social media bans to access different sources of information. The day before Russia was set to impose a ban on Instagram in March, demand for Virtual Private Networks (VPN) that allow users to obscure their location to access censored websites rose by more than 2,000%, according to TOP10VPN, a digital monitoring company.

Further Reading

Meta loses appeal in Russian court over ‘extremist activity’ tag -TASS (Reuters)

Russia says it will limit access to Facebook, a major platform for dissent. (New York Times)