Russia on Tuesday added social networking giant Meta to the list of "terrorist and extremist" organisations, according to a report by the news agency AFP.

Russia added the US-based tech giant, also the parent company of the world's most popular messaging platform WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook, to a list of "terrorist and extremist" organisations, as per the database of the Federal Service for Financial Monitoring.

This comes almost two weeks after Facebook parent Meta said that it has removed networks of fake accounts that were based in Russia and China for violating the company's policy against "coordinated inauthentic behaviour". The fake Russian accounts were sharing Ukraine war content.

On March 21, the social networking platform was designated as extremist after the Russian government alleged that it selectively lifted its rules to allow Ukrainians to call for violence and use hate speech against Russian "invaders," including calls for the death of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

According to a Reuters report, earlier in June, a Moscow court had rejected an appeal by Facebook parent Meta after it was found guilty of "extremist activity" in Russia in March. In court, Meta's lawyer at the time said Meta was not carrying out the extremist activity and was against "Russophobia".

Image courtesy: AFP