According to an online database run by the Russian interior ministry, the spokesperson for the American technology corporation Meta—which owns Facebook and Instagram—has been placed on the country’s wanted list.
The inclusion of Meta communications director Andy Stone on the list came as a surprise to both the Russian state agency Tass and the independent news outlet Mediazona. This development came weeks after Russian authorities labeled Meta as a “terrorist and extremist” organisation in October, paving the way for potential criminal charges against Russian citizens who used its platforms.
The database maintained by the Interior Ministry simply lists Stone’s criminal charges and no further information about the case against him. An attempt to reach Meta for comment was met with no response at all.
Stone was placed on the wanted list in February 2022, according to Mediazona, an independent news website that follows Russia’s opposition and jail system. However, at the time, no remarks were made by the authorities, and until this week, no news outlets covered the story.
Russia’s Federal Investigative Committee launched a criminal inquiry into Meta in March of this year. It claimed that the business incited violence against Russians by its acts when Moscow invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
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Stone declared that Meta’s hate speech policy would be temporarily altered to include “forms of political expression that would normally violate (its) rules, like violent speech such as ‘death to the Russian invaders,'” following the entry of Russian forces into Ukraine.
Stone said in the same statement that there will be no tolerance for “credible calls for violence against Russian civilians.”
According to Mediazona on Sunday, Stone was the subject of an arrest warrant issued earlier this month by an unidentified Russian court on suspicion of “facilitating terrorism.” That information’s source was left out of the report, making it impossible to independently verify.
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Before the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, young Russians were big users of Western social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and X, which was once known as Twitter. However, these platforms have since been prohibited throughout the nation as part of a larger crackdown on independent media and other forms of critical expression. As of right moment, only a VPN may access them.
Additionally, Russia officially prohibited Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg from entering the nation in April 2022.
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