As the authorities blocked the Meta-owned photo-sharing platform, Instagram, from Russia, Russian entrepreneurs pounced at the opportunity to fill the void that had affected almost 80 million social media users. Russian tech entrepreneurs announced that they would launch an alternative photo-sharing platform on the domestic market with “Rossgram”.
The new service is expected to be launched on March 28 and have additional features such as crowdfunding in-app purchases. “My partner Kirill Filimonov and our group of developers were already ready for this turn of events and decided not to miss the opportunity to create a Russian analogue of a popular social network beloved by our compatriots,” Alexander Zobov, the initiative’s public relations director, wrote on the VKontakte social network.
🔴Russian Entrepreneur To Launch Own Instagram🔴
ICYMI- Russian entrepreneur Alexander Zobov, has decided to launch a Russian version of Instagram. This comes after the banning of the media platform. The Russian platform will be called Rossgram & will be launched on March 28. pic.twitter.com/BKs4DtMQP8
— The Insight Factor (@insightfactor) March 17, 2022
The ban of the social media platform came as it allowed users to post hate speech against the Russian President, Vladimir Putin. Immediately after the social media network bent its rule to allow offensive and hateful content targeted against the Russian leader on its platform, Russia filed a suit against Meta – Instagram’s parent company.
“A criminal case has been initiated … in connection with illegal calls for murder and violence against citizens of the Russian Federation by employees of the American company Meta, which owns the social networks Facebook and Instagram,” Russia’s Investigative Committee asserted. However, the consequences of this lawsuit are still vague.
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Following the ban on Instagram, Adam Mosseri, head of organization wrote on Twitter that “this is wrong” he further added that “this decision will cut 80 million in Russia off from one another, and from the rest of the world”. Prior to this, as a response to the rising sanctions against the Federation, Russia temporarily stopped foreign investors from selling their assets, citing that the government wanted to ensure the people take “considered decisions” and not ones driven by political pressures.
The Russian ban on Instagram also comes amidst rising sanctions from the West against Russia. The West has banned the export of luxury goods to Russia. All Russian flights have been prohibited from using the U.S, U.K, and European countries’ airspace. Strict sanctions have been imposed on accounts of Russian oligarchs, preceded by removing several select banks from SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) – a system for global payments used by over 11,100 financial institutions across the world.
Russia previously banned Facebook and restricted Twitter access in the country in retaliation for the platform placing sanctions on the state-owned media. The ban on Facebook is still in place.
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Since the ban on social media platforms, demand for Virtual Private Network (VPN) in Russia has skyrocketed. Euro news reported that a spike of 2,088 percent was witnessed since the ban on the Meta platform.