The parent company of Instagram and Facebook, Meta, was added to Russia's list of "terrorist and extremist" organisations on Tuesday, according to a Federal Service for Financial Monitoring database (Rosfinmonitoring).
After accusing Meta of condoning "Russophobia" during Russia's military action in Ukraine, officials in Russia in late March banned Facebook and Instagram for "carrying out terrorist activity."
On March 10, Meta said that while the platforms would let words like "death to Russian invaders," they would not permit real threats against people. Meta later clarified that this modification only applied to users posting from within Ukraine.
Facebook and Instagram have been inaccessible in Russia since March, but many Russians resorted to VPNs to keep using the social media network.
Instagram is particularly popular in Russia and used to be a key platform for advertisement and sales.
Billions of people use Meta’s app around the world.
This decision puts Meta on the same list as right-wing nationalist groups and foreign terrorist organisations including the Taliban and Russian opposition groups.