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Russia’s Watchdog Adds Meta To ‘Extremists’ List

By  |  October 11, 2022

Russia’s financial monitoring agency, Rosfinmonitoring, has added US tech giant Meta to its list of “terrorists and extremists”, Russian news agencies reported on Tuesday.

A Moscow court in June rejected an appeal by Meta – owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp – after it was found guilty of “extremist activity” in Russia in March. In court, Meta’s lawyer at the time said Meta was not carrying out extremist activity and was against Russophobia.

Rosfinmonitoring’s list concerns “organisations and individuals with regard to which there is information about their involvement in extremist activities or terrorism”.

Moscow has restricted access to Facebook and Instagram, although many Russian users still access them using virtual private networks (VPNs), demand for which skyrocketed as some Western internet services were blocked in March.

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