Russia confirms Instagram ban in country from next week

Move comes after Meta allowed posts calling for violence against invading troops

Instagram will be banned in Russia from next week because of parent company Meta’s decision to allow posts calling for violence against Russian troops.

The ban will go into effect on 14 March to give Russian users of the picture platform a “transition period”, communications regulators in Moscow announced.

“As you know, on March 11, Meta Platforms Inc. made an unprecedented decision by allowing the posting of information containing calls for violence against Russian citizens on its social networks Facebook and Instagram,” the agency said in a statement.

“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.

“Since it will take time for active Instagram users to transfer their photo and video materials to other social networks and notify their contacts and subscribers, 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.”

An explosion is seen in an apartment building after Russian's army tank fires in Mariupol, Ukraine, Friday, March 11, 2022. (AP)

The ban will not extend to Meta’s WhatsApp platform.

Nick Clegg, president of global affairs at Meta, defended the company’s policy in a Friday statement.

“I want to be crystal clear: our policies are focused on protecting people’s rights to speech as an expression of self-defense in reaction to a military invasion of their country,” Mr Clegg said.

“The fact is, if we applied our standard content policies without any adjustments we would now be removing content from ordinary Ukrainians expressing their resistance and fury at the invading military forces, which would rightly be viewed as unacceptable.”

Mr Clegg said that the policy would only be adopted in Ukraine and said the company had “no quarrel” with the Russian people.

“There is no change at all in our policies on hate speech as far as the Russian people are concerned. We will not tolerate Russophobia or any kind of discrimination, harassment or violence towards Russians on our platforms,” he added.