After Facebook, Twitter, Russia bans Instagram

Russia recently blocked Facebook within its borders. Now, roughly two weeks later, the Russian government has also banned Instagram within its borders. The news was announced by Russian communications agency, Roskomnadzor, which blamed Facebook’s parent company, Meta, for allowing its users to post violent messages against the country’s citizens.

“As you know, on March 11, Meta Platforms Inc. made an unprecedented decision, allowing on its social networks Facebook and Instagram the posting of information containing calls for violence against Russian citizens,” Roskomnadzor wrote in a post.

“In the social network Instagram, messages are spreading that encourage and provoke the commission of violent acts against Russians, in connection with which the Prosecutor General’s Office of Russia demanded that Roskomnadzor restrict access to this social network,” it added.

The photo and video stopped being accessible in Russia starting 12AM on March 14.

Responding to the development, Instagram boss Adam Mosseri said, “On Monday, Instagram will be blocked in Russia. 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. This is wrong.”

On Monday, Instagram will be blocked in Russia. 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. This is wrong.

— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) March 11, 2022

Notably, this development comes shortly after Meta allowed some of its Facebook and Instagram to call for violence against the ‘Russian invaders.’ The company last week said that it was temporarily allowing its users in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, and Ukraine to share messages against the Russian soldiers.

“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.’ We still won’t allow credible calls for violence against Russian civilians,” a Meta spokesperson had said in a statement to Reuters.

Clarifying the decision Meta’s president of global affairs, Nick Clegg said the decision was never aimed to be used for attacking the Russian citizens. “We are now narrowing the focus to make it explicitly clear in the guidance that it is never to be interpreted as condoning violence against Russians in general,” Clegg wrote in the internal post adding that the temporary changes were aimed to be used “only in the context of speech regarding the Russian military invasion of Ukraine”.

Meanwhile, Meta has also confirmed that it won’t allow users to share posts that call for the death of a head of state, referencing the Russian President Vladimir Putin.

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