We will remind you that Meta, like its main social networks, was recognized as an extremist organization in Russia in 2022. However, WhatsApp and the new Threads service escaped the same fate. The country blocks access to Facebook and Instagram but does not take any responsibility for using them, for example, with a VPN.

What is known

As Politico wrote, quoting TASS propagandists: Stone “wanted under article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation”. It was noted that in 2022, Russia’s so-called law enforcement authorities opened a criminal case for calls for violence and murder against Russians in connection with the actions of Meta employees. At the time, the company’s press secretary, Andy Stone, announced on the social network that Meta had temporarily lifted the ban on calls for violence against the Russian military on its platforms, calling it a form of political expression. Unfortunately, such unheard of freedom of expression on Facebook did not last long – three days later, the company once again banned such statements, even against Russian terrorists.

Although the holiday did not last long, the actions mentioned, according to investigators, contain signs of crime foreseen in the articles “Public call to extremist activities” And “It facilitates terrorist activities”.

The Investigative Committee of Russia is also conducting an “assessment” of the actions of other employees of the American company, but it is not known who this person is.

It is clear that all these actions will have no real meaning for Stone himself and the Meta company. In recent years, Russia has been conducting one investigation after another into the activities of various Western companies with the aim of fining them. For example, Google had to declare bankruptcy after local courts in Russia repeatedly fined it for “failure to delete prohibited information.” Despite the fact that the company had already left the market of the terrorist country, it did not have time to withdraw its money – it was frozen and, in fact, stolen for the benefit of the state budget of Russia.