The Russian internet is changing dramatically. Indeed, the country blocks Western sites. And among these, there is Instagram.
Moscow has been blocking access to Instagram for a few days. This decision was taken following a change in the policy of Meta, which allows, in Ukraine, calls for violence such as “Death to the Russian invaders” explains Reuters.
According to Mark Zuckerberg’s company, this change is temporary. And he justified that it would be wrong to prevent Ukrainians “from expressing their resistance and fury against the invading military forces.”
Instagram is blocked in Russia, local entrepreneurs want to fill the void
Subsequently, the group added details. For example, it is still forbidden to call for the assassination of a head of state, including Vladimir Putin.
In any case, while access to Facebook was already restricted, Roskomnadzor, the body that regulates the media in Russia, also decided to censor Instagram. The impact is significant since in Russia there are more than 80 million users of the social network.
But apparently, a Russian alternative should be released soon: Rossgram.
“It is an alternative of Instagram, but Rossgram download will not be available for some countries because these countries banned it. Example- Albania, Belgium, Canada, Germany,The United Kingdom, The United Kingdom, etc. ”
“My partner Kirill Filimonov and our group of developers were already ready for this turn of events and decided not to miss the opportunity to create a Russian analogue of a popular social network loved by our compatriots” said Alexander Zobov, director of public relations of the initiative, on the social network VKontakte, according to Reuters.
The launch of this platform is scheduled for March 28 and in addition to image sharing, it would also have a crowdfunding feature, as well as a feature allowing accounts to sell paid access. Otherwise, the interface would be quite similar to that of Instagram.
Demand for VPNs has skyrocketed since the invasion of Ukraine began
It remains to be seen whether this new local service will be adopted by the Russians. Ever since Moscow started censoring the internet after the invasion of Ukraine, VPN downloads have skyrocketed in the country.
According to the top10VPN site, the daily demand for VPNs has increased by 2,000% compared to the demand before the invasion of Ukraine. But it is not certain that these VPNs will make it possible to circumvent blockings of sites in Russia.
“VPN access remains a hot topic in Russia. Use of the software is permitted, but access to blocked content is illegal”, explains Top10VPN. It also maintains a list of domains that would be blocked in the country.
🚨 Instagram has officially been blocked in Russia. This follows the blocking of @amnesty earlier today. For a full list of blocked sites related to the invasion of Ukraine, click our tracker below. https://t.co/mBvrLak0Sm
— Top10VPN (@top10vpn) March 11, 2022
According to an article by the Interfax news agency, Roskomnadzor has already banned 20 popular VPNs in the country. Also, it would be increasingly difficult to find trustworthy VPNs in Russia.
ExpressVPN
CyberGhost VPN
NordVPN