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Moscow City Court upholds ban on Meta in Russia

In March, Moscow's Tverskoy Court declared the social networks - Instagram and Facebook - owned by Meta Platforms, extremist and banned them across Russian territory

MOSCOW, June 20. /TASS/. The Moscow City Court on Monday upheld a Russia-wide ban on the Meta corporation for extremist activity, a TASS correspondent reports.

"The decision by the court of first instance shall be deemed legal and well-founded, and Meta’s representatives’ complaint shall be rejected," the judge proclaimed, reading out the ruling, after which the court's decision, according to procedural norms, entered into legal force.

The Meta Corporation is deemed extremist in the Russian Federation.

During the process of considering the complaints, the representative of Russia’s Prosecutor General's Office asked the Moscow City Court to recognize the decision to ban the activities of Meta in Russia as legal.

This position was supported by representatives of Russia's mass media watchdog (Roskomnadzor) and the Federal Security Service (FSB). In turn, Meta's lawyers called the very fact of the trial illegal, because the company, according to its own position, is not under the jurisdiction of Russian civil courts, as it has no representative offices in Russia.

In March, Moscow's Tverskoy Court, at the behest of a lawsuit by the Prosecutor General's Office, declared the social networks - Instagram and Facebook - owned by Meta Platforms, extremist and banned them across Russian territory. The reason for the General Prosecutor's Office appeal to the court was Meta’s decision to allow residents of a number of countries to post information containing calls for violence against Russian citizens. The Russian Investigative Committee opened a criminal case over this incitement to violence and bloodshed against Russians in connection with the actions of the company's employees. The work of the messenger WhatsApp, also owned by Meta, was not restricted.

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