Russia has added the spokesman of the US technology company, Meta, who owns Facebook and Instagram, to a wanted list, according to an online database maintained by the country’s interior ministry.
The Russian state agency TASS and independent news outlet Mediazona first reported that the Meta communications director Andy Stone was included in the list on November 26, 2023, weeks after Russian authorities, in October 2023, classified Meta as a terrorist and extremist organisation, opened the way for possible criminal proceedings against Russian residents using the platform.
The interior minister’s database does not give the details of the case against Stone, stating only that he is wanted on criminal charges. Meta did not respond to a request for comment.
According to Mediazona, an independent news website that covers Russian opposition and criminal systems. Stone was put on the wanted list in February 2022, but authorities made no relative statements at the time, and no news media reported on the matter until this week.
Reasons for Investigation
In March 2023, the Russian Federal Investigative Committee opened a criminal investigation into Meta. It alleged that the company’s actions following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, amounted to inciting violence against the Russians.
After the Russian troops moved into Ukraine, Stone announced temporary changes to Meta’s hate speech policy to allow for forms of political expressions that would violate its rules, like violent speeches, such as death to the Russian invaders. In the same statement, Stone added that credible calls for violation against Russian civilians would remain banned.
On November 26, 2023, Mediazona claimed that an unspecified Russian court issued an arrest warrant earlier this month on Stone’s charges of facilitating terrorism. The report did not specify the source of the information, which could not be independently verified.
Initial Popularity of Western Media in Russia
The Western social media agencies such as Facebook, Meta, and Instagram, along with X (formerly known as Twitter), were popular with young Russians before the 2022 invasion of Ukraine but have been blocked in the country as a part of a broad crackdown on independent media and other forms of critical speech, They are now only accessible via VPN. In April 2023, Russia also banned and formally barred Mark Zuckerburg, the CEO of Facebook, from entering the country.
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