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Branding Meta extremist means ban on its funding in Russia, watchdog clarifies

It is reported that the Russian financial watchdog’s decision "in no way concerns the users of social media owned by Meta"

MOSCOW, October 13. /TASS/. Putting the US-based tech giant, Meta, (outlawed as an extremist organization in Russia) on the nation’s list of extremists and terrorists means the Russian financial system will be prohibited from funding it, the country’s watchdog explained on Thursday.

On Tuesday, the Federal Financial Monitoring Service of the Russian Federation (known as Rosfinmonitoring) placed Meta on its lists of organizations complicit in terrorism and extremism.

"This decision obliges Russian financial companies to take measures in order to freeze the funds and other assets of the organization in question, including a ban on the use of the Russian financial system for funding it," the watchdog clarified. It reiterated that the decision did not affect the access to this company’s products for Russian users.

Chairman of the Federation Council’s (the upper house of parliament) Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State Building Andrey Klishas said earlier that the Russian financial watchdog’s decision "in no way concerns the users of social media owned by Meta."

In March, Moscow’s Tverskoy Court declared the Meta-owned social networks — Instagram and Facebook — extremist and banned them throughout Russia. The ban does not cover the messenger WhatsApp also owned by Meta. The reason for the appeal by the General Prosecutor's Office to the court was the temporary lifting of the restriction on residents of a number of countries to post information containing calls for violence against Russian citizens.

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