Andy Stone, Meta’s communications director, has been sentenced in absentia to six years of imprisonment by a Russian court for ‘publicly defending terrorism.’ The charges stem from a Twitter/X comment Stone posted in March 2022, advocating aggressive, hostile, and violent actions against ‘Russian servicemen participating in the special military operation,’ which is what Russia calls its invasion of Ukraine.
The ‘terrorism’ charges could stem from Stone posting Meta’s statement on the 2022 policy that temporarily allowed forms of political expression to be posted on its social media sites that would normally violate the company’s terms of service, such as ‘death to the Russian invaders.’ Stone posted the statement on Twitter/X on March 10, adding that Meta still wouldn’t allow calls for violence against Russian civilians.
Facebook and Instagram, already banned in Russia following the invasion of Ukraine, were found guilty of ‘extremist activity’ by a Russian court over the policy change, and Stone was placed on a wanted list.
Russian government-run news agency TASS writes that Stone’s comment ‘contained public calls to commit deadly terrorist attacks against the servicemen.’ TASS states that Stone’s offending post was made on March 11, 2022, so they could be referring instead to Stone reposting Meta global affairs president Nick Clegg’s explanation of the policy change. He said the policy would only be applied to users inside Ukraine.
Stone faced 5 – 7 years for a crime that falls under an article covering public incitement to commit terrorist acts, public justification of terrorism, or propaganda of terrorism. The prosecution, which had asked for seven years, dropped the charges of promotion and public calls for terrorism against Stone over ‘confusion in the wording of the indictment.’ Moscow’s Second Western Military Garrison Court sentenced Stone to six years in a high-security prison.
With no extradition treaty existing between the US and Russia, Stone should be safe as long as he stays away from the country, which is a pretty safe bet. Interfax cited Stone’s lawyer, Valentina Filippenkova, as saying that the sentence would be appealed.
In August last year, Dmitry Glukhovsky, the Russian science fiction writer who penned the Metro series and collaborated with 4A Games on the video game versions, was sentenced in absentia to eight years in prison for deliberately spreading false information about Russia’s military.
