Meta headquarters in Menlo Park, California, October 28, 2021 (GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/Archives/JUSTIN SULLIVAN)
Russian authorities on Sunday included Andy Stone, the spokesperson for the American social media giant Meta, parent company of Facebook and Whatsapp, in the list of people wanted, even though the company is classified as “extremist” in the country.
Andy Stone’s name now appears in the Russian Interior Ministry’s database of people wanted for violations of the criminal code. The authorities do not specify what they accuse Meta’s communications director of.
Russia officially designated the American group as a “terrorist and extremist” organization in October 2022, opening the possibility of heavier legal proceedings against its users in the country.
Facebook and Instagram have also been blocked in the country since the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine and are inaccessible without a virtual private network (VPN), like Twitter and many media sites critical of the government.
Before its ban, millions of Russians used Meta applications, in particular Instagram, a network which remains very popular among young people in the country despite its blocking.
In April 2022, Russia placed the leader of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, on its blacklist of people prohibited from entering its territory.
© 2023 AFP
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