Russia has declared war against Mark Zuckerberg's apps as they add Instagram and Whatsapp to the banned list.
The new restrictions come shortly after Meta – which owns Instagram, Facebook and Whatsapp – was branded as an “extremist organisation” for changing its hate speech policy to allow posts that call for violence against the Russian military.
The Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation submitted an application to court to have the designation applied to the social media giants, Interfax reports.
The application read: "In accordance with the Federal Law ‘On Countering Extremist Activity’, the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation sent an application to the court to recognize Meta Platforms Inc. as an extremist organization and ban its activities in the territory of the Russian Federation."
Meta claims it made the recent changes to its policy to allow the citizens of Ukraine to voice their feelings about the ongoing conflict in their country.
Meta's statement said: "In light of the ongoing invasion of Ukraine, we made a temporary exception for those affected by war, to express sentiments toward invading armed forces such as ‘death to the Russian invaders."
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- Vladimir Putin
- Military
- Russia
- Breaking News
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