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All Meta services to be blocked in Russian soon — lawmaker

Earlier, the Russian prosecutor general’s office lodged a suit with court to recognize Meta Platforms Inc. as an extremist organization and ban its operation in Russia

MOSCOW, March 11. /TASS/. All Meta services are likely to be blocked soon in Russia as a response to its decision to allow calls for violence against Russian nationals on Facebook and Instagram social networks in some countries, Sergey Boyarsky, first deputy chairman of the information policy committee of the Russian State Duma (lower parliament house), said on Friday.

"Russia’s mass media watchdog has all the instruments to respond to such unlawful actions. Something tells me that all Meta services will soon be blocked in Russia," he said in an interview with the Rossiya-24 television channel.

However, a source close to the Russian prosecutor general’s office told TASS that blocking of Meta resources will not cover WhatsApp.

Earlier, the Russian prosecutor general’s office lodged a suit with court to recognize Meta Platforms Inc., which owns the Instagram and Facebook social networks, and the WhatsApp messenger, as an extremist organization and ban its operation in Russia after the company’s spokesman confirmed that Meta was temporarily lifting a ban on calls for violence against Russian nationals, including soldiers for users in some countries. Russia’s Investigative Committee opened a criminal case on charges of propaganda of terrorism and instigation of hatred with the threat of the use of violence (part 2, article 205.2 and part 2, article 282 of the Russian Criminal Code).