The Moscow City Court has rejected an appeal filed by Meta Platforms against a lower court's decision to label the company an extremist organization, a move that effectively outlaws its Facebook and Instagram social media platforms.
The ruling pronounced by Judge Aleksandr Ponomaryov on June 20 upholds a ruling by the Tver district court on March 21, meaning it can come into force.
The court's March 21 decision was made despite a plea by Meta's lawyers to postpone the hearing to give them more time to respond.
Prosecutors said at the time that the ruling would not affect Meta's WhatsApp messaging platform, since it is not a public platform.
State prosecutors filed the request after news surfaced that Meta Platforms was permitting Facebook and Instagram users in some countries to call for violence against Russians and Russian soldiers after Moscow launched its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
On March 10, Meta said that as a result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, "we have temporarily made allowances for forms of political expression that would normally violate our rules, like violent speech such as, 'Death to the Russian invaders.'"
It added that the company "still won't allow credible calls for violence against Russian civilians."
Moscow has moved to limit access to independent media, including social media, over the past year.
Russian authorities had already blocked access to Facebook after it blocked some posts by state-owned media outlets.
