'Extremist organisation': Russia upholds ban on Meta, WhatsApp safe for now

New Delhi: A Russian court on Monday labelled most Meta (Facebook) Platforms Inc an 'extremist organisation', however, exempted its WhatsApp messenger from this category and said it could remain operational.

Meta Inc’s Facebook and Instagram social networking platforms are already banned in the country owing to what Moscow calls ‘extremist activities.’

"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.

The comments came as 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’s stance

Meta’s company lawyer, Victoria Shagina, had said in court 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.

Russia recently banned Meta’s Facebook for restricting access to Russian media while Instagram was blocked after Meta said it would allow social media users in Ukraine to post messages urging violence against Russian President Vladimir Putin and troops Moscow sent into Ukraine on Feb. 24.

Ever since Russia launched a military attack on Ukraine, calls inciting violence against Russia peaked on these platforms and as per Moscow, Meta did little to prohibit sucg calls for the death of a head of state and said its guidance should never be interpreted as condoning violence against Russians in general.

Facebook last year had an estimated 7.5 million users and WhatsApp 67 million, according to researcher Insider Intelligence.

Russia on February 24 launched a military operation in Ukraine to invade its territory. The country is calling the attack ‘retaliation’ in response to calls from the Ukrainian breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk people`s republics for protection against intensifying attacks by Ukrainian troops.

(With Reuters inputs)