Russian court recognises Meta as an extremist organisation
The Tverskoy Court of Moscow recognised Meta, the owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, as an ‘extremist organisation’.
Under the ruling, the blocking of Facebook and Instagram will begin immediately. The order does not extend to WhatsApp.
The Prosecutor General’s Office stressed that Russian citizens using Facebook and Instagram will not be prosecuted for extremism:
«The use of the company’s products by individuals and legal entities should not be regarded as participation in extremist activity».
note that there are nuances for users — for example, buying advertisements on Instagram and Facebook may be considered funding an extremist organisation.
Law enforcement officials will also be able to draw up a protocol against any site or shop that contains links to social networks or to a person distributing business cards with contact details on Instagram and Facebook — this is a public display of extremist organisation symbols.
Vladimir Ozherelyev, a lawyer at RosKomSvobody, head of the Intellectual Property Practice at the Digital Rights Center, told ForkLog that legal liability for using blocked social networks cannot fall on all users at once, otherwise a substantial portion of Russia’s population would become extremists.
«We cannot rule out the imminent block of WhatsApp, but for now the messenger still has the ability to adjust its policies and algorithms to comply with the requirements of Russian law», — he said.
The status of ‘extremist organisation’ is quite serious, said Dmitry Machikhin, founder of Bitnalog.com:
«In effect, this is a direct restriction on Russians’ use of these social networks, which will drive away both ordinary users and businesses».
The Tverskoy District Court of Moscow decided not to show Russian citizens the text of the decision recognising Meta as an extremist organisation. On the court’s website it notes that publication is prohibited under point 5 of Article 15 of the law “On ensuring access to information on the activities of courts in the Russian Federation”. According to it, decisions that “affect state security” may be permitted not to publish.
Earlier, the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office demanded that Meta be recognised as an extremist organisation because of the company’s statements about temporarily urging violence against Russian soldiers in cases relating to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
On 4 March Roskomnadzor had already blocked access to Facebook and Twitter. By 14 March the agency had restricted access to Instagram.
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