Russia continues to isolate itself by blocking Instagram

The invasion of Ukraine is also a propaganda war. That means, among other things, that it cannot be called that in Russia. Social media plays a big role. There has been a dispute between Meta and Russia since the beginning of the war and the Putin regime is now responding. In concrete terms, it concerns information and disinformation on social networks such as Facebook and Instagram. On the one hand, banning this Russian war propaganda, on the other, Meta caused a stir last week because in certain countries calls for violence against the Russian invaders will not be categorically dropped.

As previously announced, the Russian Media and Censorship Authority has taken Instagram offline in response to these new met-moderation guidelines. Instagram boss Adam Mosseri criticized this decision a few days ago, announcing on Twitter: “Monday Instagram will be blocked in Russia. This decision will cut 80 million people in Russia from each other and from the rest of the world, as about 80 percent of people in Russia follow an Instagram account outside their country. That’s wrong.”

Russian influencers will suffer

This is bad for many Russian Instagram users because the network is very popular in Russia too. For some, this also robs them of their livelihood. So reports the Washington Post that a Russian fashion influencer Karina Nigay bemoaned the ban in a live video, saying: “Imagine you just got fired and have no income, but at the same time you have expenses for the family, for your team or employees – and then suddenly you have nothing to pay your team.” Nigay was asked in the comments whether her complaint was in order given the plight of the Ukrainian people. Her answer: “Listen to everyone who writes all this nonsense, all these propaganda stories, I don’t give a fuck at all.” And it shows once again: Putin’s propaganda machine is running like a train in his own country.