Putin’s tug-of-war against the West continues. This time, while on the battlefield the war grinds the dead and the bombs slash the Ukrainian sky, the clash also goes through the web. Russia indeed announced today that Meta – company to which Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram belong – is officially on the blacklist of “terrorist and extremist organizations”.
Russia Meta in the list of terrorist organizations. What does it mean?
The announcement was made by Rosfinmonitoring, the government agency that monitors financial transactions in Russia. The proceeding follows what happened in March, when a Russian court ruled that the platforms belonging to Meta were “extremist”. After that Facebook and Instagram services had been suspended across the countrywhile WhatsApp was still active.
With the inclusion in today’s blacklist, however, any Russian citizen caught using Meta’s social networks, including WhatsApp, can be sanctioned and even prosecuted. Not only that, the accusation in this case would be of “terrorism”.
In addition to Moscow’s propaganda discourse – which by doing so further eliminates any Western sources concerning the narrative of the ongoing war – there is obviously a strong political stance. Putin is thus eliminating another typical element of Western culture from his country.
La Repubblica reports that Facebook subscribers in the country would be about 50 million. A small number given that the Russians prefer the native version of the social: VK.
Among the new entries on the list, however, there is not only the company founded by Mark Zuckerberg. It is also considered terrorist Vesnaa Russian pacifist organization that has been active since the beginning of the invasion with the cry of “ceasefire”.