Russia moves to ban Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook

Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp face being blocked in Russia after the country’s state prosecutor filed to have the services’ parent company Meta branded as an “extremist organisation”.

Russian media reported on Friday that the country’s authorities were moving against the US social media giant following a policy decision to permit calls for violence against Russian leaders and military personnel in some countries, and only in the context of the war in Ukraine.

“Consistent with the Federal Law on Countering Extremist Activities, the Russian Prosecutor General’s office has lodged a motion with a court for designating Meta Platforms Inc. as an extremist organization and banning its operations in the territory of the Russian Federation,” the office said on Friday.

Russia’s Prosecutor General also called for the country’s media monitoring and censorship agency Roskomnadzor to restrict access to Instagram from within the country.

Designating Meta as an extremist organisation in Russia would halt the company’s business operations there.

Euronews