A Russian court has banned Facebook and Instagram after declaring their parent company, Meta, is “extremist.”
While Russia had already restricted access to Instagram and Facebook, this will be the first ruling within the country using its “anti-extremism” laws to ban a foreign tech firm.
Moscow’s Tverskoi District Court ruled on Monday to uphold a lawsuit filed by Russian state prosecutors to ban Meta within its legal territories, according to the court’s press service.
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Meta’s lawyer, Victoria Shagina, pushed back against the lawsuit in court by saying the company was not engaging in extremist activities, according to Interfax News Agency. Shagina also argued Meta was doing all it could to discourage Russophobia.
While the court’s ruling designated Meta as an extremist organization, it does not restrict access to all Meta services. The private messaging app Whatsapp will be allowed due to “its lack of functionality for the public dissemination of information,” the court ruled.
The Russian “extremist” category has been applied to terrorist groups like the Islamic State and less provocative religious groups like Jehovah’s Witnesses. Putin critic Alexei Navalny and his allies are also considered extremists under Russia’s current laws.
Russia’s extremist law has been used broadly to limit political opposition and its ability to organize, according to Alexander Verkhovsky, the director of the SOVA Center for Information and Analysis. It has also been used to harass religious communities and to “interfere in peaceful religious observance and persecute believers,” according to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.
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The initial lawsuit was filed in response to Meta making exceptions in its content moderation guidelines to allow those in Ukraine to call for violence against Russian invaders. That decision led Russia to ban access to Instagram on March 14.
Youtube faces similar legal risks after a Russian tech regulator declared the video streaming company a “terrorist in nature.”
