The prosecutor's office considered the Instagram advertisement "participation in extremist activity" and issued a warning to the 18-year-old blogger

The Kuntsevo Interdistrict Prosecutor's Office of Moscow warned 18-year-old fashion blogger Veronika Loginova about the inadmissibility of violating the law on countering extremism due to advertising on her Instagram. Loginova wrote about this on her blog and also confirmed it to the human rights project Roskomsvoboda.

The document that was handed to Loginova states that in March of this year, the Tverskoy District Court of Moscow recognized company the Meta , which owns Instagram, as an extremist organization, therefore “the placement of materials there, including advertising, can be considered a form of participation in the activities of an extremist organization and inducement to the participation of an indefinite number of persons.”

The department noted that after the court decision, the blogger continued to publish posts on Instagram, so she was warned of liability under Parts 1.1 and 2 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code, which imply up to 8 and up to 6 years of imprisonment, respectively, as well as under administrative articles about calls for implementation extremist activity and demonstration of extremist symbols (Articles 13.37 and 20.3 of the Administrative Code).

As Loginova noted, she created her own clothing brand, writes about fashion and psychology, and “never touched on the political agenda.” According to the blogger, on August 17, when she was in Paris, her mother called her and said that the police had come to their home.

"Like this. You live, take beautiful photos, build a business, help people, don’t hurt anyone. But you live in Russia, and among a million bloggers they come to you,” Loginova wrote. The head of the legal practice of Roskomsvoboda, Sarkis Darbinyan, said that this is “the first case of persecution of a citizen of the Russian Federation based on simply using Instagram .”

“With this approach, everyone is under attack, even those who post cats and sell hand-made goods <...> This, of course, is not at all what prosecutors promised when recognizing Instagram and Facebook as extremist, when they publicly stated that this is a decision for end users will not affect,” the lawyer explained. He added that, in the opinion of the project, the prosecutor exceeded his powers, so Roskomsvoboda sent a letter to the department asking for clarification of its position.