- After banning Facebook in Russia, the Russian Roskomnadzor announced it would ban Instagram.
- This ban may be due to after Meta announcing plan for Instagram because of “hiding information about people’s followers, who they are following and also apply for private accounts.”
- Earlier in the day, Russian government officials threatened a ban, demanding that Meta confirm or refute the information first reported by Reuters.
For people in Russia, Roskomnadzor gives midnight on Monday to transfer their data to other platforms. Russia kept blocking social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter last week.
The head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, said in a tweet that “This decision will cut 80 million in Russia off from one another, and the rest of the world as ~80% of people in Russia follow an Instagram account outside their country. I’m afraid that’s not right.”
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
Last night, Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said, “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.”
Meta’s Global Affair President, Nick Clegg, said in a tweet that Meta doesn’t have any preconceptions against the Russian population and would not accept Russophobia on their platforms.
Responding to reports that the Russian government is considering designating Meta as an extremist organization for its policies in support of speech: pic.twitter.com/Y8sUbZDSML
— Nick Clegg (@nickclegg) March 11, 2022
News Recommendations:
- The EU instructs Google to remove Russian state media sites from search
- Russian news channels RT and Sputnik were blocked by Youtube in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
- Read Tim Cook’s letter to Apple workers regarding Ukraine
- Instagram App for iPad: Exec says iPad doesn’t have enough user base
- Facebook limits false campaigns over Ukraine by blocking some Russian media accounts
