Ukraine crisis: Russia restricts Instagram access over violent post policy, launches criminal case
- Moscow said it will launch an investigation into Instagram owner Meta, and pushed for the Silicon Valley giant to be branded ‘extremist’
- Move hits back at allowing posts calling for violence against Russian forces; Moscow has also taken steps to block access to Facebook and Twitter
Russia restricted access on Friday to Instagram and launched a criminal case against its owner Meta, as Moscow fired back at the tech giant for allowing posts calling for violence against Russian forces.
Moscow’s internationally condemned invasion of its neighbour has provoked unprecedented sanctions from Western governments and businesses, but also a surge of online anger and debates over social media’s role in the war.
A day after Meta said it had temporarily eased its rules to allow calls to violence like “death to the Russian invaders”, Russia’s media regulator said it was restricting access to hugely popular Instagram because it contains “calls to commit violent acts”.
Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, also said it was launching an investigation of Meta, and prosecutors pushed for the Silicon Valley giant to be branded “extremist”.
Meta’s statement on the eased policy followed a Reuters report that said the change applied to Armenia, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia and Ukraine, citing the firm’s emails to its content moderators.
