Russian Federation has banned popular social media platform, Instagram, in their country. The Meta-owned photo and video sharing platform is no longer available to the country’s 80 million users.
The ban comes after Russia had announced plans, having already banned Facebook and Twitter. The country had cited “discrimination against Russian media” as the reason for banning Facebook. Meanwhile, the ban on Instagram is because of the parent company Meta, which also owns Facebook, allowing users in foreign countries including Ukraine to make posts calling for violence against Russian soldiers.
“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,” Instagram head Adam Mosseri had tweeted last Friday.
Perhaps Russia’s actions are a response to the EU, US, and the UK announcing sanctions against the country following its invasion of Ukraine last month. The sanctions aim to cut off the world’s largest country from the rest of the world.
Several major businesses have stopped or limited their operations in Russia, including Samsung, Apple, Microsoft, HP, and Intel. All these developments gradually isolate the country “financially, economically, and technologically.”
Russia, meanwhile, has continued its military aggression in Ukraine. The unprovoked invasion has taken several innocent lives. And as its own citizens start to speak against the violence, the country is now banning popular social media platforms to cut off communication and control the flow of information about its invasion of Ukraine.