Despite the blocking of Facebook and Instagram in Russia, the country’s citizens should continue to be able to use social networks legally. A court held this in a judgment on the proceedings surrounding the Meta group, to which Facebook and Instagram belong, as the state agency Tass reported on Monday. The group was classified as an “extremist organization”. Russian citizens are allowed to continue using Facebook and Instagram, it said. Many people use social networks to earn money, for example to sell goods. They had feared for their livelihood.

The blocked networks can be accessed via the widely available protected network connections (VPN) that can be used to bypass page bans. Russian MPs recently said they had no plans to issue a general ban on VPN use.

The background to the actions of the Russian judiciary was a decision by Meta to allow calls for violence against Russian troops in Ukraine. The US group had announced loosening of the rules in Russia’s war against Ukraine. A Facebook spokesperson cited the phrase “death to Russian invaders” as an example of an exception to utterances that would normally have violated policies. This caused great outrage in Moscow. Meta later clarified the rules for content inspectors: They only apply in Ukraine, and calls for violence may not be directed against Russians in general or against heads of state like Vladimir Putin.