Russia Orders Arrest of Meta Exec for ‘Extremist Activities’

Russia’s Basmanny District Court in Moscow has charged Meta Communications Director Andy Stone with alleged “promotion of terrorist activities, public justification or propaganda of terrorism, and public calls for extremist activities,” according to Reuters.

The country’s authorities have ordered Stone’s arrest in absentia; his social media profiles list his location as Washington, D.C.

In November, Russian authorities added Stone to a wanted list, according to a post from Russia-backed news site TASS shared by Politico. TASS also reported that a Russian Court representative ordered Stone’s arrest at the same time. The outlet said that arrest ruling was appealed, but did not provide further details on the appeal.

Shortly after Russia began its invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, Russia dubbed Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, an “extremist organization” for permitting posts calling for violence against Russian soldiers invading Ukraine.

Russia then blocked Meta from operating in the country and later responded to US sanctions by banning Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg (and 29 other people) from the country.

Meta has vehemently denied these allegations, with Meta President of Global Affairs Nick Clegg previously writing in March 2022 that the company is “focused on protecting people’s rights to speech as an expression of self-defense in reaction to a military invasion of their country.”

Clegg argued at the time that Meta would permit Ukraine-based users to call for “resistance” against Russian troops on platforms like Facebook, but said posts in the name of “Russophobia” or any “hate speech” against Russian people would not be tolerated.

Source » pcmag.com