Russian court labels Meta an ‘extremist organization’, WhatsApp excluded
Global News
The implications labelling Meta an "extremist organization" remain unclear.
A Moscow court on Monday labelled Meta Platforms Inc an “extremist organisation”, but said the decision would not apply to its WhatsApp messenger service, focusing its ire on the company’s already banned Facebook and Instagram social networks.
Moscow’s Tverskoi District Court upheld a lawsuit filed by Russian state prosecutors on banning the activities of Meta on Russian territory, the court’s press service said in a statement.
Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The U.S. company’s lawyer, Victoria Shagina, had said in court earlier on Monday that Meta was not carrying out extremist activities and stood against Russophobia, the Interfax news agency reported.
TASS cited judge Olga Solopova as saying the decision would be enforced immediately.
The implications of labelling Meta an “extremist organisation”, a designation once reserved for groups such as the Taliban and Islamic State but later given to the Jehovah’s Witnesses and jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, remain unclear.
Meta’s flagship platforms, Facebook and Instagram, are already banned in Russia and the court said WhatsApp would be unaffected by the ruling.
“The decision does not apply to the activities of Meta’s messenger WhatsApp, due to its lack of functionality for the public dissemination of information,” the court said.
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