Russia Moves to Recognize Meta As “Extremist Organization,” Ban Instagram and WhatsApp
According to RIA Novosti, a Russian state-owned news agency, the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office has asked a court to recognize Meta as an extremist organization and ban its activities in Russia. The news agency reports that the Russian Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case regarding public calls for extremism and promotion of terrorism because of a change in Meta’s content moderation policy, reported yesterday by Reuters, which would allow calls for violence against the invading Russian army and calls for the death of Russian autocrat Vladimir Putin. < - > Meta’s WhatsApp messenger boasts nearly 80 million users in Russia, and Instagram more than 60 million. Facebook was blocked in the country last week. The moves by Russia arguably accelerate its drive towards ‘cyber sovereignty,’ which Freedom House researchers Allie Funk and Grant Baker say has been a goal of the country’s government for some time. “For years now, the Russian government has sought to erect its own digital borders in cyberspace, allowing it to control the online information environment and insulate residents from the global internet,” they wrote in Tech Policy Press. https://techpolicy.press/russia-moves-to-recognize-meta-as-extremist-organization-ban-instagram-and-whatsapp/ -- Iw mailing list [email protected] http://sticklist.org/mailman/listinfo/iw_sticklist.org
