Russia follows through on retaliation promise, bans Instagram

Russia has banned the photo-sharing website. According to the Washington Post, the country shut down access on March 14th, leaving nearly 60 million users without easy access. The ban was issued in response to Meta allowing Ukranian users to call for the deaths of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Meta has changed its guidance. According to a leaked internal post from global affairs President Nick Clegg, the company was narrowing the focus of its policy to once again ban calls for Putin's death, and to warn that the soldier exemption didn't let people wish for it.

It is not certain if any Russians can use a virtual private network. Some users could not use connection tunnels to circumvent the ban. Telegram is a secure chat app that has become important during the war in the Ukranian because of its privacy.

Even if Meta's revised guidance is acceptable to Russia, there is no guarantee that it will reverse its stance. The nation has made it illegal for media to publish content that challenges the government's official line on Ukraine. Putin's administration has been determined to silence political dissent, and unknown agents have aided that goal by paying Russian TikTok stars to spread pro-Kremlin messages despite a ban on new uploads. Western social media is still considered a threat by Russia.