Russia lists Meta among terrorists and extremists
A retrospective on the 11 October 2022 decision to add the parent company of Facebook and Instagram to a Russian list.
What did it mean for a technology company to be placed on a list of "terrorists and extremists"? On 11 October 2022, Russia added Meta Platforms, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, to that list.
The stated grounds were that the company tolerated Russophobia and allowed calls to violence against Russians. The listing came during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The decision was one of the developments of the war's eighth month that touched the digital and corporate sphere rather than the front line. On the battlefield, Ukrainian troops had recaptured the strategic village of Dudchany, on the west bank of the Dnieper, on 5 October 2022, after Russian forces withdrew. That was part of the Ukrainian southern counteroffensive.
The two events, six days apart, showed the conflict unfolding on separate tracks: territorial gains in the south and measures against a foreign technology company in Russia.
