Instagram began to be blocked in Russia

Update. Around 23:00 Moscow time on March 13, Instagram began to be blocked in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

In the regions of Russia in the Far East, communication providers began to block the Instagram application, access to which Roskomnadzor promised to limit from 00:00 on March 14.

In the Far East, where March 14 has already arrived, the social network stopped opening at exactly midnight local time (16:00 Moscow time), writes Amur Mash. When you try to open the application, a message appears about problems with connecting to the Internet.

The Borus Telegram channel reports that Instagram is also unavailable in Krasnoyarsk (March 14 had not yet arrived there at the time of publication). The app is only available with a VPN.

On March 11, Roskomnadzor announced the blocking of Instagram due to "posting information containing calls for violence against Russian citizens." The day before, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, changed its moderation policy to stop removing threats and calls for violence against the Russian military, as well as death wishes for Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko, in some countries.

• On March 11, the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation filed a lawsuit demanding that Meta be recognized as an "extremist organization." The Investigative Committee opened a criminal case against Meta employees for public calls to carry out extremist activities.
• Facebook has been blocked in Russia since the beginning of March. An Interfax source close to the Prosecutor General's Office claimed that the WhatsApp messenger would not be blocked, since "the communication tool is not for public placement."