A Russian court has banned Instagram and Facebook from operating in the country for engaging in “extremist activities”.
Moscow’s Tverskoi District Court upheld the lawsuit filed by Russian state prosecutors that accused Meta of tolerating “Russophobia”.
The ban immediately blocks Meta from conducting business and opening new branches in Russia.
New Moderation Policy
Last week, both Facebook and Instagram introduced a temporary moderation policy that enabled Ukrainian users to call for violence against Russian soldiers.
Initially, there were reports of moderators allowing content that called for the deaths of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. However, this was later amended, banning content that calls for violence against a head of state. As a result of the policy, Russia blocked Instagram.
Instagram has said this decision will affect about 80 million of its users.
Meta-owned messaging platform WhatsApp will not be affected by the court’s decision.
