At 11:00 Moscow time on March 21, 2022, a meeting was scheduled on a lawsuit from the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation demanding that Meta be recognized as an extremist organization. The relevant documents have already been received by the Tverskoy Court of Moscow.
Civil case on the statement of claim of the First Deputy Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation in the interests of an indefinite circle of persons against the transnational holding company Meta Platforms Inc. on the ban on the activities of the organization on the grounds of carrying out extremist activities is scheduled for trial in a court session on March 21, 2022 at 11.00, the press service of the court told RIA Novosti.
On March 11, the Prosecutor General's Office filed a lawsuit demanding the recognition of Meta Platforms Inc. extremist organization and the prohibition of its activities on the territory of the Russian Federation. The actions of the department are caused by a change in the Meta moderation policy in some countries. Users were allowed to wish death and call for violent actions against Russian citizens, the military, as well as Russian President Vladimir Putin and President of the Republic of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko. Later, Meta changed these rules twice, reducing the number of countries to only Ukraine and forbidding heads of state from wishing death. But this did not affect the intention of the Prosecutor General's Office to recognize Meta as an extremist organization.
Alexander Khinshtein, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Andrey Klishas, Chairman of the Federation Council Committee, and Ekaterina Mizulina, Director of the Safe Internet League, assured that if the lawsuit is approved, Meta's minority shareholders and ordinary users of the company's platforms will not be held liable and will not be recognized as extremists. Russians who own accounts in Meta social networks will not be recognized as extremists if the published posts do not violate Russian law.
Despite the statements of government officials, lawyers and human rights activists fear that, if necessary, any interaction with the Meta platforms could be considered extremism. According to lawyer Valeria Vetoshkina, even applications can be considered extremist materials, and their use is qualified as participation in activities under Part 2 of Art. 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Network Freedoms lawyers believe that the use of the Facebook, FB Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp logos may fall under Part 1 of Art. 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation (propaganda or public distribution of symbols of extremist organizations), and purchases and any monetary relations with Meta services are financing of extremists.
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