Instagram is now completely blocked in Russia

In Russia, it is completely blocked. The app was officially banned by the country's media regulators on Friday but they gave Russians 48 hours to use it.

GlobalCheck, a service examining internet restrictions in Russia, confirmed the ban at midnight on Monday.

Last week, Russian prosecutors requested a court to label Meta as an Extremist Organisation after a temporary change to its hate speech policy allowed users to post calls for violence against the Russian military invading Ukraine. The ban of the social network was due to calls to commit violent acts against citizens of the Russian Federation, according to the agency.

The president of global affairs at Meta wrote on Friday that they would only apply the policy in Ukraine. There is no change in our policies regarding hate speech for the Russian people.

It would be wrong to stop Ukrainians from expressing their resistance and fury at the invading military forces, and that Meta's policies were focused on protecting people's rights to speech.

The policy change was temporary and taken in extraordinary and unprecedented circumstances.

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This decision will cut 80 million in Russia off from one another, and from the rest of the world as 80% of people in Russia follow an account outside their country, according to Adam Mosseri, head ofInstagram. This is not right.

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Meta's Facebook has already been banned by Russia. It is not clear what will happen to Whatsapp, which is owned by the company. The country has blocked the micro-messaging service. Russians are not allowed to post videos on TikTok.

The Washington Post pointed out that Russian creators using the photo sharing site were distraught at the news, with many saying they would lose their primary source of revenue and means of communicating with followers. Many people have asked their followers to use Telegram.