The Russian government has banned the Meta-owned Instagram app amid the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine. Before Instagram, Facebook has also been banned in Russia. Apart from Facebook and Instagram, Tiktok is also partially banned in Russia, that is, users of TikTok can watch already uploaded videos but cannot upload new videos, although apps like YouTube and Telegram are still being used in Russia.
Like all the governments of the world, Russia has also banned social media, but the way people of other countries of the world use social media amid the ban, so are the people of Russia. After the ban on any site, the demand for Virtual Private Network (VPN) increases and the same has happened in Russia. Let us tell you that VPN is used on a large scale in many countries of the world including China and India. After the ban, the demand for VPN in Russia has increased by 668% percent.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Meta said it was changing its hate speed policy for Russian users. After this change, Russian users could post violent and provocative posts against Russian President Vladimir Putin on Facebook. Following this change in policy, the Russian government has banned both Meta’s apps, Facebook and Instagram. The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office has asked a Russian court to classify Meta as an extremist organization, Russia’s independent news agency Interfax reported.
Popular companies that closed their services in Russia
- Meta: Meta’s Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp cannot be used by Russian state media. Apart from this, monetization has also been stopped in Russia on all these platforms.
- YouTube: Google has removed ads from Russian state media’s YouTube channel.
- TikTok: In Europe, Tiktok has ended access to State Media’s accounts related to RT and Sputnik. Apart from this, users of Tiktok cannot upload new videos.
- Twitter: Twitter has banned advertising amid the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine.
- TSMC: Taiwan’s TSMC has banned the sale of all chipsets in the Russian market, including Elbrus-branded chips designed in Russia.
- Netflix: Streaming platform Netflix has banned Russian government television channels, such as Channel One, on its platform, although the company has not ended its business with Russia.
- Intel: Major chipset maker Intel has stopped selling its chips in Russia.
Apart from these, AMD, Dell, Uber, Bolt, Snapchat, Viber, Roku, Microsoft, Nokia, and Apple have also stopped their services in Russia.