WEBVTT

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(suspenseful music)

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- Earlier today, a
Russian court upheld a ban

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on Meta that labeled them
as an extremist organization

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which in effect means that
Facebook and Instagram

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are completely banned in Russia now.

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A criminal investigation
was launched into Meta

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two weeks ago,

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following changes to their
policies on political speech.

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So, Facebook temporarily
changed its policies,

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which would allow users in Ukraine

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and also in some Eastern
European countries,

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to essentially to call for violence

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against Russian troops,

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or in some cases against
Russian military leaders.

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This comes about a month into
Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

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And this has less to
do with Facebook per se

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or any Facebook executives

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but it's about people who
are posting on the platforms.

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Russia right now has, as we've
seen over the past month,

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is running out of a lot of friends,

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and we've seen week after week,

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more Western tech firms pull
out of the country entirely.

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The kind of wild thing about
this whole designation is

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that it really was designed
for terrorist groups

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and other groups

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that were more traditionally
ascribed to extremism.

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So here will actually be the first time

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that designation has been used
for foreign technology firms.

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So critics have pointed
to that as an example

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of how this term,

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that was once used for terrorist groups,

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and other extremist organizations,

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has been wide and significant.

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(suspenseful music)