Russia announced last Saturday, March 12, the decision to restrict Instagram in its territory. The measure against the social network, which belongs to Meta, begins to take place officially from this Monday, the 14th. This morning, it was informed that it is no longer possible to update the application or access it without a virtual private network, the so-called of VPN.
After the measure, Instagram enters the country’s restricted access network. The list is published by the Russian telecommunications regulatory agency, the so-called “Roskomnadzor”. Other media outlets that Vladimir Putin’s government sees as an opposition also enter the organization’s list, such as Twitter or Meta’s own networks, such as Facebook.
The Russian government’s decision was based on recent decisions announced by Meta. On Friday, the 11th, Mark Zuckerberg’s company announced a temporary change in the rules of its platforms. Now, with the war in Ukraine, which was invaded by Russia, users of the brand’s social networks had the speech against Russians released within the context of the conflict.
According to the director of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, the social network has more than 80 million users in the country, a considerable number. According to data from the consultancy eMarketer, the network is much more popular than Facebook within Russia. Therefore, the government measure should directly affect the company.
The measure was put into practice after the 48 hours announced by the Russian government. According to the regulatory agency, users had a period of 2 days to transfer their photos to other social networks and change the contact data saved through Instagram, whether personal or professional.
It is not yet known how long the measure will last and whether there are plans by the Russian government to remove Instagram from the restricted access network in the country.
The Instagram post starts to be restricted in Russia as of today appeared first on DNEWS.
