Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is not welcome in Russia

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been barred by the Russian foreign ministry from entering the country. Along with Zuckerberg, US Vice President Kamala Harris has also been barred from entering the country. The Russian Foreign Ministry has noted in a statement that Zuckerberg, Harris and others will be banned indefinitely. The people who are banned from entering Russia also include the CEO of Linkedin Ryan Roslansky along with journalists with profiles who the country claims are promoting a “Russiaphobic” agenda. Interestingly, Parag Agrawal, who is the CEO of Twitter, was not banned by the ministry. Twitter has been removing misinformation posted by the Russian authorities. It does not come as a shocker that Russia has barred Zuckerberg from entering the country because Russia had previously banned Facebook and Instagram under extremism law. Facebook and Instagram, the widely used apps in Russia, were accused of “carrying out extremist activities”. However, Russia did not ban WhatsApp, which is another Facebook entity, stating that the app is used for communication and it is not a source of miscommunication. “The activities of the Meta organisation are directed against Russia and its armed forces,” FSB representative Igor Kovalevsky told the court, the Russian state news agency TASS reported. “The activities of the Meta organisation are directed against Russia and its armed forces.The use of Meta’s products by individuals and legal entities should not be considered as participation in extremist activitiesIndividuals will not be held liable for using Meta’s services,” FSB representative Igor Kovalevsky told the court. Meta had briefly allowed users to call for Putin's death on Instagram as well as Facebook. However, decision was revoked soon after Facebook and Instagram were banned. As per a Bloomberg report, Meta in an internal email to its employees stated that the new moderation rule “is never to be interpreted as condoning violence against Russians in general”. However, he did add that Meta does not permit calls to assassinate a head of state.”Last week, Meta permitted the users in Russia, Ukraine, Georgia and Poland, eastern Europe to put up posts asking for Putin's death. At the time when the photo-sharing app was banned in Russia, it had close to 80 million users. (Source: India Today)