Starting Monday, No More Instagram in Russia

After same move on FB, nation bans social media site due to 'calls for violence' against Russians
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 12, 2022 8:15 AM CST
Starting Monday, No More Instagram in Russia
Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with members of the government via teleconference in Moscow on Thursday.   (Mikhail Klimentyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Earlier this month, Russia blocked access to Facebook. Now citizens are about to lose access to Instagram, a widening of the net that's "squeezing the free flow of information online for Russians," per NPR. Insider reports that Roskomnadzor, Russia's media overseer, announced Thursday that starting Monday, Instagram will be banned, giving users just a few days to save all their photos and videos elsewhere before they're restricted. The agency blames the move on an "unprecedented decision" by Facebook and Instagram parent Meta to permit "the posting of information containing calls for violence against Russian citizens" on the two social networks.

What Roskomnadzor may be referring to is a report from Reuters on Thursday that Meta is temporarily allowing Facebook and Instagram users in some nations to put up posts calling for the death of Russian soldiers, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. "As a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine we have temporarily made allowances for forms of political expression that would normally violate our rules like violent speech such as 'death to the Russian invaders,'" a Meta rep said in a statement. "We still won't allow credible calls for violence against Russian civilians."

Following that report, Russia's Tass state-owned news agency noted that Russia wants to have Meta legally deemed an "extremist organization," with the country's prosecutor general calling for a probe into whether Meta breached laws on "inciting hatred" and "terrorist propaganda," per Insider. Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, pushed back on Russia's latest ban. "This decision will cut 80 million in Russia off from one another, and from the rest of the world as ~80% of people in Russia follow an Instagram account outside their country," he tweeted Friday. "This is wrong." (More Russia stories.)

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