New Delhi: Meta popular photo-sharing platform Instagram was no longer accessible in Russia on Monday as the country cut off access to the platform, according to regulator Roskomnadzor. Russia's ban on Instagram comes after Meta recently decided to temporarily ease its rules pertaining to violent speech and allow statements that call for harm against Vladimir Putin and Russian soldiers.
According to state regulator Roskomnadzor, access to the facebook-owned photo-sharing app will be cut off on March 14th.
“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,” Roskomnadzor posted on its Telegram account.
“Roskomnadzor decided to complete the procedure for imposing restrictions on access to Instagram at 00:00 on March 14, providing users with an additional 48 hours of transition period," the state regulator added.
Even as social networking giant Facebook was “restricted” in Russia for more than a week in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the ban was not applicable to Instagram. Meta had previously mentioned that it was changed its policies in support of speech, but has not given out a statement after Russia announced cutting off Instagram from the country.
"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," a Meta spokesperson was quoted as saying in a statement by news agency Reuters earlier last week.
Meanwhile, earlier in late February, as part of its ongoing efforts amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Meta Platforms Inc had banned several state-run accounts from Russia from monetising on the platform and from running advertisements from anywhere in the world.