Russia bans Instagram, Facebook

The Russian Federation on Monday banned Facebook and Instagram from operating in the federation. A Russian court issued the ban order on Facebook and Instagram as “extremist” in circulating information on the cruises in Ukraine.

Russian accused US tech giant, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, of tolerating “Russophobia” over the conflicts in  Ukraine.

Russia has since early March made Facebook and Twitter inaccessible, while Instagram was blocked one week ago in Russia.

The Moscow’s Tverskoi district court adopted a request from prosecutors for banning the two social media platforms for “carrying out extremist activities’ ‘.

The court ruled that Meta’s WhatsApp messenger service would not be prohibited because it is not used to post public statements.

Furthermore, Russian media regulator, Roskomnadzor, accepted the request of the prosecutors on Monday to block access to euronews.com, the website of the French channel Euronews, and its Russian version, ru.euronews.com.

At the court hearing on Monday, Russia’s FSB security service, represented by  Igor Kovalevsky, had in a statement protested: “the activities of the Meta organisation are directed against Russia and its armed forces.

“We ask to ban Meta’s activities and oblige it to implement this ruling immediately.”