A Russian court on Monday has banned Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, for alleged “extremist activities,” rendering its operations inside Russia illegal. The decision handed down by Moscow’s Tverskoi District Court, however, excludes messaging service WhatsApp, which Meta also owns, according to the Interfax news agency. “The court has granted the lawsuit filed by the first deputy prosecutor general of Russia against the holding company Meta Platforms Inc. seeking a ban on operations on the territory of Russia,” Judge Olga Solopova wrote on Monday, adding that Meta’s Facebook and Instagram are “banned on the grounds of extremist activities. The court decision is to be fulfilled immediately.” But court’s “decision does not apply to the operations of Meta’s messenger WhatsApp due to its absence of functions for public information dissemination,” a judge said. Meta’s lawyer Victoria Shakina had earlier told the court that the company was not carrying out …