We brought you news of Facebook’s ban in Russia after the platform moved to limit some accounts associated with state media in a tit-for-tat situation.
Now, Instagram is banned in a move many people were expecting. This leaves Russians with one less service through which they can gain an unfiltered view of the wider world.
Interestingly, Russia is accusing Facebook of allowing images that call for “violence” against Russians but the service has reported that is only half true in that they are making a special allowance for media promoting Ukrainian resistance against the Russian military forces invading their country.
As PetaPixel reports, Meta told Reuters “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.”
This leaves WhatsApp as the only service remaining in Russia from Meta’s umbrella of services but its ban could be right around the corner. One reason would be that it would just make logical sense to go on ahead and ban all of Meta if that’s what Russia wants to do and, second, the Russian government accused Meta of supporting extremism and terrorism.
Currently, social media services remain active in the parts of Ukraine that have a connection. These platforms are providing the outside world with a firsthand account of the brutality that is occurring there. Given that, it’s not hard to see why some people might not want their citizenry to have unfettered access to it.
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