ARE RUSSIAN BOTS STILL LEGAL IN RUSSIA?
October 11, 2022 -Durt Fibo

As far back as March, Russia had banned Facebook and Instagram for “Russophobia” and “carrying out extremist activities”. Now it has formally inserted the parent company, Meta, into its list of “terrorist and extremist” organizations.

Although using some Meta products (WhatsApp was heretofore excluded from the censoring) is still technically legal, the new listing means that Russian citizens or companies who purchase ads on Facebook or Instagram could face up to 10 years in prison on charges of “sponsoring extremism.”

Social media users could be prosecuted for mentioning Meta without disclosing the ban on its activities, or for reproducing the logo of any Meta organizations, which would make utilizing even WhatsApp a crime attractive to bored or ambitious prosecutors.

This fresh information comes directly from Rosfinmonitoring, the Federal Financial Monitoring [i.e. intelligence-gathering] Service of the Russian Federation.