Russia’s Financial Monitoring Service has included US company Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp, on a list kept by organizations engaged in terrorism and extremism.
According to the news of the Russian news agency Interfax, Meta, which was once seen as an extremist organization by Russia and banned in the country, was also on the list, as well as the movement “Vesnah”. The group promotes demonstrations against the government of Vladimir Putin and has already taken a stance against the war in Ukraine.
In March, the Russian justice system accepted a request from the Public Ministry to ban tech company Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp, describing its activities in the country as an extremist organization.
“The activities of the American multinational Meta Platforms to present the social networks Facebook and Instagram for extremist activities are prohibited on the territory of the Russian Federation,” the plenum of the Tverskoi court said in a statement on Telegram.
The decision did not apply to the WhatsApp messaging service, as it did not include functions for public disclosure of information.
Meta cracks down on war-related disinformation networks
Meta, the parent company of social media networks Facebook and Instagram, announced on September 27 that it has removed what appears to be Russia’s largest web of disinformation about the war in Ukraine and a smaller network in China to influence the upcoming US elections. . . .
Meta’s David Agranovich said at a press conference that the Russian operation began in May and mainly targeted Germany, but also France, Italy, Ukraine and the United Kingdom.
Meta said at the center of the operation were 60 fake websites impersonating popular media outlets such as the German newspapers Der Spiegel and Bild, the British newspaper The Guardian and the Italian news agency ANSA.
The Russian network created articles criticizing Ukraine and supporting Russia and shared them on Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, Telegram, Twitter and online petition platforms.
*With information from AFP and EFE
source: Noticias
