On Monday, March 21, the Tverskoy Court of Moscow banned the operation of social networks Facebook and Instagram in Russia for extremism, RIA Novosti reports. The decision took effect immediately.
The claim for recognition of the company Meta, which owns the services, as extremist, was filed by the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation. The supervisory agency explained that they intend to “protect the Russians from further violation of their rights.”
In particular, the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation stated that Instagram ignored more than 4.5 thousand requests to remove “fakes about the special operation of Russian troops in Ukraine and calls for unauthorized rallies.”
It is emphasized that the court decision does not apply to the WhatsApp messenger, which is also owned by Meta. In addition, there is no penalty for using Meta’s services.