Moscow court labels Meta ‘extremist organisation’ whilst WhatsApp dodges ban
A Moscow court has labelled Meta an “extremist organisation”, although said its decisions would not apply to WhatsApp.
Moscow’s Tverskoi District Court upheld a lawsuit filed by Russian state prosecutors on banning the activities of Meta on Russian territory, the court’s press service said in a statement.
Meta’s lawyer, Victoria Shagina, said in court that Meta was not carrying out extremist activities and stood against Russophobia, the Interfax news agency reported.
By labelling Meta as an extremist organisation, Russia is giving it the same status as the likes of the Taliban and Islamic State.
However, in practice, Meta’s Facebook is already banned in the Kremlin state after it restricted access to Russian media. Russia also ousted Instagram after Meta’s Nick Clegg said it would allow social media users in Ukraine to post messages urging violence against Vladimir Putin and troops invading Ukraine.
According to reports from Reuters, the court said “The decision does not apply to the activities of Meta’s messenger WhatsApp, due to its lack of functionality for the public dissemination of information”.