Russian regulators restrict access to Instagram

Russia’s communications regulator announced Friday that the government would be restricting access to Instagram after its parent company Meta said it would temporarily allow certain users to call for violence against Russian forces.

“Based on the requirement of the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation, access to the Instagram social network (owned by Meta Platforms, Inc.) in the Russian Federation will be limited,” the regulator Roskomnadzor said in a statement.

“The Instagram social network distributes informational materials containing calls to commit violent acts against citizens of the Russian Federation, including military personnel.”

Roskomnadzor cited a statement Meta spokesperson Andy Stone made about the announcement and asserted that Meta was allowing users “to post information containing calls for violence against Russian citizens, including military personnel.”

According to the policy, Meta is temporarily allowing some political expression — like “death to the Russian invaders” — to be allowed online, but not “credible calls for violence against Russian civilians,” according to a statement from Stone on Thursday.

A spokesperson at Meta referred The Hill to a statement from Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, who criticized the move by Russia.

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

“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,” 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.”

Clegg said that the policy would only be adopted in Ukraine and added that the company had “no quarrel” with those living in Russia.

“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.

The news comes a week after Russia blocked access to Facebook, another platform owned by Meta.

Update: 10:22 p.m.