After Facebook and Twitter, the online network Instagram is now also blocked in Russia. This was confirmed by the NetBlocks organization and Instagram users in Russia on Monday night. The step had been announced for midnight. The Russian media regulator Roskomnadzor announced the ban on Friday. It was justified by the fact that calls for violence against Russian citizens and soldiers were being spread on Instagram.
Citizens of the country were also informed about the lockdown via the public services portal’s mailing list, the Russian agency Tass reported on Sunday evening. In it, Roskomnadzor said that Russia has its own competitive Internet platforms, including the social networks VKontakte and Odnoklassniki. “We hope that your transition to these Internet environments will be swift and that you will discover new ways of communicating and doing business in the future,” Tass quoted the release as saying. The block should also ensure the “mental health” of citizens by protecting them from harassment and insults on the Internet.
The background to the move is a decision by the US company Meta, which includes Instagram and Facebook as well as WhatsApp, to allow calls for violence against Russian troops in Ukraine. A Facebook spokesperson cited the phrase “death to Russian invaders” as an example of an exception to utterances that would normally have violated policies. This caused outrage in Moscow. There are also efforts to have the entire Facebook group Meta banned as an “extremist organization”. (dpa)