The Tverskoy District Court of Moscow has declared that Meta is guilty of so-called extremist activity and as a result – despite already being banned – Facebook and Instagram are banned in Russia.
Curiously, as Reuters points out, WhatsApp will not be banned with experts suggesting either WhatsApp is too popular to ban or that the government is methodically banning services rather than banning everything in one swoop.
This decision by a Russian court follows Meta’s decision to allow users in Ukraine to call for violence against Russians invading their country. Interestingly, Russian authorities will not be bringing citizens who use Meta products to book.
“The use of Meta products by individuals and legal entities should not be qualifies [sic] as participation in extremist activities” a representative for the prosecution told Russian state-media outlet TASS.
Furthermore the State Duma Committee on Informational Policy, Technologies and Communications deputy head, Anton Gorelkin has said that the decision can be reversed if Facebook recognises how it violated Russian law. However, Gorelkin said that the comments can’t come from just anybody and any statements need to be verified by Russian regulators, TASS reports.
On the point that Russian citizens won’t be guilty of extremist activity when using Meta products, Reuters says that according to human rights lawyer Pavel Chikov, the court cannot guarantee the safety of Facebook and Instagram users in the country. The lawyer said on Telegram that public displays of Meta logos could land Russians in trouble with administrative charges or up to 15 days in jail.
It’s also worth noting that Meta’s decision to allow Ukrainians to post content that would ordinarily violate its policies is temporary.
Meta is not the only company to stoke the ire of Russian regulators. Russia’s Roskomnadzor has pointed out that YouTube has censored Russian media on its platform and its requests to reverse these decisions were largely ignored.
“For all the facts of censorship of the Russian media and socially significant resources, Roskomnadzor sent demands to stop discrimination and provide free access to information for all users of the video hosting. However, as of March 18, these requirements have not been met by Google LLC. Once again, we urge Google to immediately stop any restrictions on the Youtube platform in relation to Russian media and resources, to ensure unimpeded access for Russian users to information in accordance with current Russian law. And we remind you of the measures of technological impact provided for by law in relation to Internet platforms,” the regulator wrote at the weekend.
We suspect that there will be more bans handed down by Russia in the coming days but we are unsure of how tech firms will respond. While Meta told the court it wasn’t carrying out extremist activities it has yet to comment on the ban.
