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Russia Shuts Down Instagram at Midnight. Users Say Farewell (cnn.com) 116

Posted by EditorDavid from the striking-midnight dept.
Slashdot reader quonset shares this report from Reuters: Instagram users in Russia have been notified that the service will cease as of midnight on Sunday after its owner Meta Platforms said last week it would allow social media users in Ukraine to post messages such as "Death to the Russian invaders". An email message from the state communications regulator told users to move their photos and videos from Instagram before it was shut down, and encouraged them to switch to Russia's own "competitive internet platforms".

Meta, which also owns Facebook, said Friday that the temporary change in its hate speech policy applied only to Ukraine, in the wake of Russia's Feb. 24 invasion. The company said it would be wrong to prevent Ukrainians from "expressing their resistance and fury at the invading military forces"....

The message to Instagram users from the state media regulator, Roskomnadzor, described the decision to allow calls for violence against Russians as a breach of international law. "We need to ensure the psychological health of citizens, especially children and adolescents, to protect them from harassment and insults online," it said, explaining the decision to close down the platform.
"The tears were flowing Sunday among Russia's airbrushed Instagram influencers, who begged their followers in farewell posts to join them on alternative social media platforms..." reports the Washington Post: On the platform, emotions ran high Sunday among Russians who were about to lose thousands of dollars they received to promote various products, as well as access to millions of followers amassed over the years. "I'm writing this post now and crying," Olga Buzova, a Russian reality television star, wrote, saying she hoped "it's all not true and we will remain here...."

The ban on Instagram is the latest example of how Russia's citizens are being isolated from the rest of the world as a result of Moscow's war against Ukraine. Since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the invasion on Feb. 24, his government has also pulled the plug on Russia's opposition-oriented radio and television networks, part of a broader effort to squelch domestic dissent in response to the war. Thousands of Russians have been arrested for attempting to protest the invasion.... But perhaps no move is more isolating than removing Russians from social media platforms that connect them directly to other users around the world. Instagram counted nearly 60 million users in Russia in 2021, according to the market data firm Statista, about 40 percent of the country's population. The platform is also a huge revenue source for its users, who rake in cash from sponsors by posting promotional content.
"We know that over 80 percent of people in Russia on Instagram follow an account from outside of Russia," Instagram head Adam Mosseri said in a video, according to the Post's article.

It adds that "It is unclear how many Russians will continue to be able to access Instagram using Virtual Private Networks, or VPNs."
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Russia Shuts Down Instagram at Midnight. Users Say Farewell More

Russia Shuts Down Instagram at Midnight. Users Say Farewell

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  • Whether they are sleeping, walking, learning, or even being carried. Even before they leave the hospital when born. Russia murders children without remorse and without hesitation.

    • Right, because your country never attacked a country that never attacked it, was no threat to it, and slaughtered children and leveled hospitals?

      Must say, what Russia has done thus far to Ukraine is pretty tame compared to what USA has done to some places to innocent civilians.

      • Must say, what Russia has done thus far to Ukraine is pretty tame compared to what USA has done to some places to innocent civilians.

        Has the US deliberately bombed maternity hospitals? Cancer hospitals? Has the US deliberately shelled civilian buildings to prevent people from living there? Has the US cut off towns and cities and prevented food and supplies from reaching those places while also preventing people from leaving? Has the US abducted mayors of towns and installed their own puppets?

        Russia is d

        • It's OK, he's just engaging in traditional Russian (formerly Soviet) whataboutism. They have a decades-long history of it. Surprised we haven't heard the classic "but in your country they lynch negroes" dragged out yet.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by fazig ( 2909523 )
            It's because it's such an effective sophism.
            It's even in the Bible as the famous "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." Now in defense of Jesus there, the (equivalent of) 'Bible-thumpers' in the story were going to murder a woman over something as stupid as adultery. And I'm not trying to allude that it's a true story, it just serves as evidence that this kind of sophism is indeed quite old.
            And while the tu quoque in that 'cautionary tale' was used to prevent disproportiona
        • Maybe not, but Israel armed and supported by US is very well known for doing exactly that and much more, like besiege civilians for now 15 years.

          • Maybe not, but Israel armed and supported by US is very well known for doing exactly that and much more, like besiege civilians for now 15 years.

            There's a difference though. Israel is in the habit of announcing where they will bomb a few hours before bombing, so that civilians can leave the place. This may not be much consolation for those who lose everything they built over a lifetime, but it keeps the number of deaths relatively low, at least compared to when bombings aren't announced.

            Putin's brown shirts, in contrast, don't have even this microscopic level of decency. They bomb hospitals, schools, civilian neighborhoods etc. with exactly zero con

        • specific quote: "Has the US abducted mayors of towns and installed their own puppets?"
          No, they've done worse by doing this on a national scale by putting dictators in power in South America (Project Condor, mostly led by CIA). What kind of direct and indirect effects this has caused and how much responsibility is for the US is open for debate but there's no denying your involvement. That's from a cursory search.
          The US have done many of the other things you describe during the Vietnam war as well, like bo
      • Comment removed based on user account deletion

        • Another junvenile whining about "whataboutism" when his country does things a hundred times worse to other nations for decades. Another hypocrite and sociopath who supports mass murder of women and children as long as they are brown and not Christian, who is utterly ignorant of what the USA did in Ukraine for last 10 years to bring us here.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by fazig ( 2909523 )
            Two wrongs don't make a right.
            Plenty of us here are not even from the US and have condemned what the US and the UK did in the Middle East, and before in Vietnam. Even a lot of Americans themselves didn't like it and were called "hating America" and "wanting the terrorists to win".
            And you would take away everyone's right to speak up against more war?

            Go fuck yourself with your whataboutism bullshit.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by halivar ( 535827 )

            Well, I can certainly see how the Ukrainians are so bitter about "what the USA did in Ukraine for last 10 years". They're positively throwing themselves at you.

            No, wait; that's a javelin.

      • Ukraine did not I case Kuwait because they wanted the Kuwaiti port.
        You attempted false equivalence fails because Ukraine didn't attack their neighbors. Iraq did that. Kuwait needed to be defended from Iraq, not from Ukraine.

        How about just be honest. Just say you're sad that Russia didn't finish their genocide of Ukrainians last time, and you hope they finish the job this time.

        • I assume you're referring to the Holodomor.
          Calling it a genocide as a point of fact borders on misinformation.
          There is no consensus on the matter.

          It was fucked up, for sure, and did the authorities in Moscow make sure they were well insulated? You bet.
          However, millions of Russians outside of Ukraine died too from the same policies, and the more vile shit that occurred in Ukraine was enacted by Ukrainian authorities, which was a nominally independent SSR at the time.

          There's a reason there's no consens

      • Yeah, well, "whataboutism" is so passe...
        Can't you trolls invent something new?

        • Juvenile to start chanting whataboutism when you're unconcerned your country does things a hundred times worse again and again, but you don't give a shit because it's brown heathen people of different culture. You're a self-righteous sociopath cheering for mass murderers, that's the issue. You can't deal with anyone pointing out your evil.

          • My country?
            Nice of you to assume I'm American.
            My country was under USSR boot for 45 years, thank you for asking.
            Now, politely fuck off, please.

      • You know, you would think that Russia would learn from the fact that the United States - which spends more on defense than any other nation on earth - hasn't won a war in the last 20 years.

        How could Putin believe that he could win after what happened to the US in Iraq? Or how neither the US nor Russia could win in Afghanistan?

    • Wait, wait! Don't tell me - Russian soldiers are taking Ukrainian newborns out of incubators, and leaving them on the floor to die.
    • How ridiculous the nasty Orc Putler is. He talks about being a saviour of Christianity and nows expects temperance from Meta? While singlehandedly destroying Ukraines beautiful people and feeding his own people soldier sausage? What a clown. As far as his phony priest Kirill goes, He needs a good dose of Po-210 like the one Putin received (hehe). I hope thats not inconsiderate.
      Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church from Moscow Times.

      “Pride parades are designed to demonstrate that si

    • So youâ(TM)re pro-life or only to virtue signal? Just curious.

  • in soviet Russia we shut you down!

    • Now if only someone shut down instagram everywhere else, too...
    • This is so fucking tone-deaf. What a moron.

    • It's no longer Soviet Russia. It is now the FSB Russia. And that's not a joke.

      • It's Oligarch Russia where those who prop up the leader get to order big yachts because they've become billionaires under Putin.

        • The oligarchs all got subjugated or killed. Putin owns them.

        • It's Oligarch Russia where those who prop up the leader get to order big yachts because they've become billionaires under Putin.

          And even better, get to flee in their private jets to the socialist country of Israel [timesofisrael.com] which has not gone along with any sanctions against Russia.

          Looks like we know who Israel considers a friend.

          • Well Usmanov's A340-331 [treasury.gov] has been deregistered so under AIA and International agreements it can't be flown.

            As for Israel, I think they're playing a dangerous game here or they're trying to get some nice aircraft on the cheap.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by xalqor ( 6762950 )
            Israel's first priority is it's own survival, which has continuously been threatened since it declared independence in 1948. It's not hard to figure out who Israel considers a friend -- countries supportive of Israel's continued existence are friends, countries that threaten or attack Israel are not friends. If a country was previously antagonistic and changes direction, then it can also be a friend. This isn't a secret, you can learn all this for yourself if you bother to read about its history. Your comme
        • The oligarchs were made well before Putin.
          Putin was the one who brought them to heel.
          He turned the crumbling Russian Federation under proxied oligarch rule into a right proper dictatorship, completely with single-party rule.

        • well, there this:

          the de-yachtsification of russia is in progress.

          (wait, was that what they were saying, all along?)

      • It's no longer Soviet Russia. It is now the FSB Russia. And that's not a joke.

        Let us not forget, the Dictator of Russia is KGB, and you don';t leave that world or change your views. So he's wearing oligarch clothing, but he wants to do to thye rest of the world what Stalin wanted.

        Look up holodomar - this is what Russia does.

  • ... with laughter. Sweet Russian tears are so salty.

    • ... with laughter. Sweet Russian tears are so salty.

      It's like hearing from the people who have OnlyFans account whine they can't get paid any more because they're Russian and the payment systems have been shut down.

      • It's like hearing from the people who have OnlyFans account whine they can't get paid any more because they're Russian and the payment systems have been shut down.

        I'm not sure what the situation is on the heterosexual side of things, but it seems like gay live webcam adult entertainment is one of Russia's bigger exports (judging by a popular cam site with a name that sounds like something from Idiocracy). It's also not nearly as titillating as you might assume, either. Mostly, they just sit around fully-clothed, looking really bored (and almost always smoking an e-cig) while waiting for some sugar daddy to pay them for a private show. It's actually kind of sad.

        (An

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by dargaud ( 518470 )

          (And no, I'm not the sugar daddy. I'm too broke to even be a Splenda daddy.)

          Quote of the day !!!

        • (And no, I'm not the sugar daddy. I'm too broke to even be a Splenda daddy.)

          Splenda is like 3x-5x the price of sugar. No wonder you're broke ;)

      • It's like hearing from the people who have OnlyFans account whine they can't get paid any more because they're Russian

        Yeah, but have you seen Russian women? This is a great loss to competitive masturbators the world over.

    • It just occurred to me that, once Meta deletes all those Russian accounts, the ex-users can rest easy knowing that Clearview AI has a backup.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      I don't think it's a good thing that ordinary Russians are suffering because of Putin. A necessary thing perhaps, but to me they are just more of his victims.

      • The intelligent, well-informed and educated Russians are absolutely appalled and have a clear view of who is to blame form this sh%&show. That leaves the other 85% of the population, who are well-fed on Kremlin propaganda and happy about it.

        And it’ll stay like that until the body bags of their sons start coming home in large quantities. That’s what it takes for reality to hammer through the thick skull of a typical under-100-IQ person. Not unique to Russia. Dumb people are the same all o

        • That leaves the other 85% of the population, who are well-fed on Kremlin propaganda and happy about it.

          Please inform us where you got that statistic from? Whatever the percentage is, maybe they are in fear for their lives if they complain, I wouldn't be surprised if its about the same percentage as Americans that would actually put their lives on the line for Ukraine.

          • Meh give me a counterstatistic, if youre gonna play that “citations please” game. Ive talked to people who are from Russia. They are professionals and educated people who got out. Some before the USSR collapsed. They universally have told me that the general Russian population supports Putin. The people themselves are no different than Americans - in that the “average” 50th percentile Russian does NOT have any college education, and very little ability to parse the nuances of world

          • Moscow Times... 66% of russians support the war.

            it's basically an old/young split (young people don't want the war) and a bit of a "russians who speak english"/"russians who only speak russians" split (which is a proxy for education level).

      • I don't think it's a good thing that ordinary Russians are suffering because of Putin. A necessary thing perhaps, but to me they are just more of his victims.

        Do you even think he cares? He's a product of the old Soviet Union, which tried to starve the Ukrainians to death.

        I saw some old pix that look legit of Ukrainins that turned to cannibalism. This is simply what he does, and he will continue until the world stops him. Mark my words, this is what is going to happen.

      • I don't think it's a good thing that ordinary Russians are suffering because of Putin. A necessary thing perhaps, but to me they are just more of his victims.

        I wish there were a way to make ordinary Russians feel like ordinary Ukrainians do. Anything less is really not fair. They should be thankful how lucky they are.

        • powerful statement. and true.

          normally, you dont wish ill upon regular people, but then again, regular ukrainians are being killed and bombed and russia seems to ENJOY it, even a lot of their people are totally ok with it.

          so, yeah, I would wish the same suffering on russians.

          for as long as it takes

  • Why do so many Russian agencies names start with Ros? Roskomnadzor, Roscosmos, Roskothis, Roskothat, etc.?

    I tried to google to find an explanation but couldn't find one. Anybody knows?

  • All Russians will not be required to make daily use of Putingram. Only the best in social media for the strongest country.

  • This almost happened here in the USA to TikTok, and for the same reason. The previous administration didn't like that a foreign social media platform was being used to spread criticism about "dear leader".

    Before you laugh it up about how much it sucks to be in Russia, remember that our democracy is almost as fallible. Maintaining freedom requires loyalty to principles, not parties.

  • where will I be able to find pics of my future Russian mail-order bride?

  • The message to Instagram users from the state media regulator, Roskomnadzor, described the decision to allow calls for violence against Russians as a breach of international law.

    Good thing Russia themselves didn't breach international law or anything.

    • The problem is every fucking member of the UNSC has themselves breached international law, or by their veto, shielded other countries from facing the music for breaching international law.

      We've turned the term into a cynically hollow insult.

      On the plus side, it would appear that the world is at least coming around to the idea that we break international law for better reasons than the Russians- or at the very least try to make sure the countries we knock over are inhabited by people with the incorrect a

  • the temporary change in its hate speech policy applied only to Ukraine, [...] it would be wrong to prevent Ukrainians from "expressing their resistance and fury at the invading military forces"....

    But apparently for every other country being invaded by someone, that's not wrong ?

    The first and the second part of that sentence don't fit each other. Either allow everyone who's being invaded to express their fury, or nobody. Why is Ukraine special?

    Specifically, if you want to argue this point, tell me why apparently it wasn't ok for Iraqis or Syrians or Jemenites. Because they have brown skin? Because they're being invaded by the "right" people?

    • the temporary change in its hate speech policy applied only to Ukraine, [...] it would be wrong to prevent Ukrainians from "expressing their resistance and fury at the invading military forces"....

      But apparently for every other country being invaded by someone, that's not wrong ?

      There are a lot of sketch overreactions going right now. It'll be interesting to see how this time is looked back on in 10 years. I personally hope it'll be a lesson for selfish politicians to stop demonizing foreign countries during elections.

  • All the horrors of the Ukraine invasion and the oppression of media/personal freedoms inside Russia aside, this seems like an own goal in the info-wars: it now allows Putin to claim (rightfully):

    Look, the evil west is discriminating against us in a horrible way!

    Claiming something rightfully doesn't matter to him one bit of course, but it might do to some of his audience who's seeing state media inside Russia as well as some of the independent messages that come through, be it through foreign broadcasts o

    • All the horrors of the Ukraine invasion and the oppression of media/personal freedoms inside Russia aside, this seems like an own goal in the info-wars: it now allows Putin to claim (rightfully):

      Look, the evil west is discriminating against us in a horrible way!

      Claiming something rightfully doesn't matter to him one bit of course, but it might do to some of his audience who's seeing state media inside Russia as well as some of the independent messages that come through, be it through foreign broadcasts or social media. If you're sitting on the fence this might tip you right onto Putin's side.

      Same holds for Britain's ban of the "RT" propaganda channel on TV

      If I was FB... Meta I wouldn't have announced the change, I just would have started doing a really crappy job of of moderating Ukrainian Instagram for the next little while.

      Or maybe allowed messages like "Death to the Invaders" but not "Death to the Russian Invaders" just to massage the optics, but of course that's with hindsight.

      Of course, Instagram was getting banned one way or another since it isn't run by a Kremlin appointee.

  • I thought the Russian were the paladins of free speech, resisting against the woke West? Turns out they're into censorship much more than the woke. Who could have told.

  • It shows either a deep disconnect from reality or deep selfishness (hint: it's the latter of the two) for these crying assholes to mourn losing their online access while their government invades a neighboring country (Ukraine) and intentionally targets and murders civilians in that country. It's like these people were "meh" on the invasion and murder part of their government actions.. but taking away Instagram?! Holy shit! Hold the phone! This shit just got real! Time to speak out and cry.. about losing the

  • I follow some extraordinary artists in Russia. There are dozens of truly exceptional artists who largely sell their work in the west. This will cut off their only viable audience and source of income. It's a shame but we are in WWIII like it or not. A line has to be drawn when criminal, unethical behavior becomes the norm. When Hitler started killing Jews, as well as Russians we said nothing. I am not Jewish but Never Again. Never Again!!! It's come to that.

  • My mother in law, in Moscow, was able to view Instagram posts this morning. I donâ(TM)t know if Russian government is any good at this kind of thing. Slava Ukraini!

  • Funny how RT page still says, follow us on Instagram.

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