Allow Hate Speech For Russia, Instagram Is Now No Longer Accessible In That Country

Instagram is no longer accessible in Russia. (photo credit: pixabay)

JAKARTA - Instagram users in Russia have received a notification from Russia's communications regulator that this social media service will be discontinued starting Sunday, March 13 at midnight local time.

This was forced to do so after its owner, Meta Platforms Inc., last week announced that it would allow social media users in Ukraine to post hate speech messages for Russia such as "Death to Russian invaders".

An email message from Russia's communications regulator told people to remove their photos and videos from Instagram before it was shut down. Russia is also encouraging its people to turn to Russia's own "competitive internet platform".

Meta, which also owns Facebook, said on Friday that a temporary change in its hate speech policy would only apply to Ukraine, after Russia's February 24 invasion.

The company said it would be wrong to prevent Ukrainians from "expressing their resistance and anger at the invading military forces".

The decision was met with anger in Russia, where authorities have opened a criminal investigation into Meta, and prosecutors on Friday asked the court to designate the US tech giant as an "extremist organization".

The head of Instagram said the block would affect 80 million users. Russia has banned Facebook in the country in response to what it says are restrictions on access to Russian media on the platform.

Messages to Instagram users from regulator Roskomnadzor described the decision to allow calls for violence against Russia to be a violation of international law.

"We need to ensure the psychological health of citizens, especially children and youth, to protect them from online harassment and insults," he said, explaining the decision to close the platform.