Moscow: Russia has declared Metta, the main company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, as an extremist and terrorist. After that, threats of banning or temporarily shutting down Instagram and WhatsApp in the country have also started to hover.
According to Interfax, Russia is behind the decision by Russia’s federal financial monitoring organization, Russia-Fin Monitoring, whose recommendations included META on the list of terrorist organizations.
Interestingly, an anti-war organization “Vesna” in Russia has also been declared a terrorist organization by Russia. However, earlier in March, Russia called META an extremist platform and blocked it, however META’s reaction to this new decision has not yet come out.
In March, the Russian government said in its detailed statement that Meta is blocking Russian and international users from accessing Russian media, especially the state news agencies Sputnik and Russia Today, which is a discriminatory measure. Subsequently, the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office also declared META an extremist organization, and this was confirmed by the state-run news agency Tass.
A Moscow court then rejected Meta’s appeal, denying the extremism charge. However, now there are fears that Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp may be blocked in Russia.