Facebook Collapses In Six Hours, Russian Social Networks Experience A Surge In Activity, Moscow: The Importance Of Internet Sovereignty

Juru bicara Kementerian Luar Negeri Rusia Maria Zakharova. (Wikimedia Commons / DIP MFA RF / photographer Nikita Kochuk)

JAKARTA - Russian social networks experienced a surge in activity, as the network of Facebook groups experienced a global shutdown Monday, which Moscow officials said showed Russia was right to develop its own sovereign internet and social networking platform.

Russia has been trying for years to assert greater sovereignty over its internet segment, putting pressure on foreign technology companies to delete content and store data in Russia. It has also improved its ability to block platforms that violate its rules.

Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the nearly six-hour blackout of the Facebook service on Monday evening answered the question of whether we need our own social network and internet platform, the importance of internet sovereignty.

Facebook blamed the outage, which left its 3.5 billion users unable to access services such as WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger, due to incorrect configuration changes.

Meanwhile, Russia's largest social network, Vkontakte, which has far more daily users in the country than Facebook, reported a spike in messages and users after Facebook's service went down.

"The number of views of Vkontakte videos increased by 18 percent and the number of messages sent via messenger by 21 percent," Reuters reported from the Izvestia newspaper, citing Marina Krasnova, head of the social network.

In addition, he said the site's viewership had jumped 19 percent compared to the previous day.

In addition to Vkontakte, Odnoklassniki, another popular social network, said activity on its site increased during the shutdown, RIA news agency reported.

To note, both Vkontakte and Odnoklassniki are owned by the Russian technology company Mail.Ru.

Russia cut itself off from the global internet during tests earlier this year, as part of efforts to protect the country from being cut off from foreign infrastructure.