Russia severing global ties: Bans Facebook and Instagram
The Russian state-owned news agency Tass earlier reported that a Moscow court rejected an attempt by Meta Platforms to have extremism charges against it dismissed.
The agency reported that Meta had asked for more time to prepare its legal position and had questioned the court’s authority to ban its activities at the request of state prosecutors, the Guardian reported.
The decision to ban Facebook and Instagram by a Moscow court on grounds that parent company Meta Platforms is an “extremist organisation” will not apply to WhatsApp messenger service.
On Monday, 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.
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.
Last Wednesday, Russian authorities blocked the website of Britain's BBC, which foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a Telegram post was
just the beginning of response actions to an information war unleashed by the West.
Russian media regulator Roskomnadzor has blocked access to several more domestic and international media websites over the coverage of Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine, RadioFreeEurope reported last weekThe websites of several media outlets and online news sources across Russia that among others included Novye Izvestiya, Ust Kut 24, Permdaily.ru, and Kavkazsky Uzel, as well as the award-winning investigation website Bellingcat, two Israel-based Russian-language media outlets -- the 9 TV Channel Israel and Vesti Israel -- Estonian newspaper Postimees, and Belarus-based Euroradio, became inaccessible on 16 March.Roskomnadzor said the move was the result of an order by the Prosecutor-General's Office which said media outlets that "carry false information of social importance that may cause a threat to the lives and/or health of citizens, and threaten a disruption of the social order and/or public safety” must be blocked.The number of the websites banned by Roskomnadzor was 32 last Wednesday.
Meta dropped 3.8% today and 38.1% in 2022.
Cover photo: 2022 SOPA Images via Getty Images
