Russia Officially Labels Facebook as a Terrorist Organization
(USNewsMag.com) – In March, a little over a week after the beginning of the war on Ukraine, Russia blocked access to Facebook and Instagram. Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary at the time, spoke out against the decision and accused the nation of trying to control the flow of information its citizens were receiving. Seven months later, Moscow made another move against the social media company.
The March ban came after a court ruled that Meta’s two platforms were allegedly anti-Russia. An appeals court upheld that ruling in June. On October 11, Russia labeled Facebook and Instagram a place for “extremist” and “terrorist” activity. Prosecutors in the nation are now warning citizens that it’s illegal to use these platforms. If anyone is caught breaking the law, they will face criminal or administrative punishments.
The new designation allows prosecutors to jail anyone caught buying ads on the platforms, as well. Those caught violating the law face a punishment of up to 10 years in prison for essentially sponsoring terrorism.
#UPDATE Russia on Tuesday added US tech giant Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, to a list of "terrorist and extremist" organisations, according to a database of the Federal Service for Financial Monitoring pic.twitter.com/OONZhLHT3o
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) October 11, 2022
Russia’s Meta ban doesn’t cover WhatsApp, the most popular messaging platform in the country, at this point. BBC News journalist Joe Tidy said the terrorist designation would hurt Russia in a “profound way.”
What do you think about Russia’s decision?
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