Facebook’s fight to curb Russian disinformation escalated even further this week, as the platform found itself completely banned in Russia for its “extremist activities.” This move comes in response to Facebook’s decision to allow users in Ukraine and several other eastern European countries to call for violence against Russian soldiers.

“We believe that the company’s operations are subject to a ban in connection with the engagement by it in extremist activities,” an official for Russia’s communications regulator said. Meanwhile, a Russian intelligence officer argued that “Meta’s activities are geared against Russia and its armed forces. We insist Meta’s activities be banned immediately.”

In addition to banning Facebook, Russian officials have also blocked Instagram from the country. However, the popular Meta-owned chat app WhatsApp is still allowed, so the company isn’t entirely shut off — yet.

Facebook’s decision to allow this kind of content was shocking, but it isn’t at all surprising that Russia has responded this way. It may ultimately hurt Facebook’s bottom line, but at least the company is beginning to stand up to authoritarian governments around the world — especially one responsible for so much of the spam and misinformation on its platform.

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