Russia is about to prohibit Instagram, and the country’s president, Adam Mosseri, is furious. According to internal emails to Facebook’s content censors, the move to block Instagram in the country comes a day after Facebook permitted posts calling for the death of Russian President Vladimir Putin in countries such as Russia, Ukraine, and Poland.
“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, head of Instagram, wrote on Twitter.
A Meta representative previously stated that the firm had given temporary exceptions for political expressions that would ordinarily be considered hate speech under Facebook’s hate speech guidelines, such as “death to the Russian invaders.” However, the spokeswoman stated that calls for violence against Russian residents would not be tolerated.
A Meta representative previously stated that the firm had given temporary exceptions for political expressions that would ordinarily be considered hate speech under Facebook’s hate speech guidelines, such as “death to the Russian invaders.” However, the spokeswoman stated that calls for violence against Russian residents would not be tolerated.
Following Meta’s new standards, Russia’s media regulator announced that access to Instagram would be restricted by Monday due to “calls to do violent crimes.” Moscow has also taken steps to restrict access to Twitter and other social media platforms, including as Facebook.
“On March 11, Meta Platforms Inc. made an unprecedented decision by allowing the posting of information containing calls for violence against Russian citizens on its social networks Facebook and Instagram.” The Russian communication agency said that “messages are circulating on the Instagram social network encouraging and provoking violent acts against Russians, in connection with which the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office demanded that Roskomnadzor restrict access to this social network.”
Instagram will not be operational in Russia starting Monday, i.e, March 14. A Russian agency confirmed that only Facebook and Instagram will be banned in the country, but the ban will not extend to WhatsApp.
