A photo taken in Moscow in March 2018 shows the Russian version of Facebook’s intro page, featuring the face of founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
MLADEN ANTONOV / AFP via Getty Images
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MLADEN ANTONOV / AFP via Getty Images
A photo taken in Moscow in March 2018 shows the Russian version of Facebook’s intro page, featuring the face of founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
MLADEN ANTONOV / AFP via Getty Images
Russian authorities called on Facebook’s parent company Meta to be branded as an extremist organization and said they would restrict access to its Instagram app, after the social media giant said they will temporarily allow some calls to violence against Russian soldiers.
Russian regulators have has been banned from accessing Facebook domestic. Now, the Russian prosecutor general’s office is seeking extreme designation for what it considers “illegal appeals for the murder of Russian citizens” by Meta agents.
In launching their criminal investigation, prosecutors also accused Instagram of acting as a platform for organizing “riots accompanied by violence.”
Roskomnadzor Media Authority speak that access to Instagram will be restricted starting Monday in Russia. It said “messages shared on Instagram encourage and incite acts of violence against Russians.”
WhatsApp, a popular Meta messaging app in Russia, was not mentioned in the government statements. Meta was unavailable for comment on the criminal case or restrictions on Friday.
In recent years, Russian authorities have expanded the designation of extremists beyond terrorist groups widely seen as al-Qaeda to include political movement jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny as well as Jehovah’s Witnesses.
The prosecutor general’s case comes after Meta made an unusual exception on Thursday to rules that prohibit the most overtly violent speech. The company said it would allow posts calling for violence against Russian soldiers from users in Ukraine, Russia and several other countries in Eastern Europe and the Caucasus.
Facebook users in Russia, Ukraine and Poland were also temporarily allowed to call for announcements about the deaths of Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus. Facebook will still remove calls for violence against Russian civilians, the company said.
“Due to the ongoing invasion of Ukraine, we are making a temporary exception for those affected by the war, to show violent sentiments towards the invading armed forces, such as ‘ death penalty for the Russian aggressors’,” Meta said in a statement on Thursday. “These are temporary measures designed to maintain voice and expression for those facing aggression. As always, we strictly prohibit calls of violence against Russians outside. narrow context of the current invasion.”
Policy changes were first reported by Reuters under a headline that said the company would allow “calls for violence against Russians,” causing widespread alarm on social media. The newspaper later changed the title to clarify that it applied to threats against “Russian invaders”.
Most of 14,000 won Anti-war protesters in Russia have been arrested in the past two weeks, as the Kremlin has been criminalization public statements with words like “war” and “invasion. ”
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