Clearly Meta and the companies under that umbrella has made Russia nervous. I say that because Rosfinmonitoring who is Russia’s Federal Financial Monitoring Service, has added Meta who owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, to its list of terrorists and extremists. Keep in mind that Russia cut off Facebook in March, but this latest move by Russia is another step forward:
The battle lines between Western technology platforms and Russia were drawn months ago.
Facebook has not been missed as much as it might have been – because of the popular Russian clone, VK.
But Instagram remains huge in Russia – and the widespread use of virtual private networks (VPNs) means the ban on the platform has not actually stopped people accessing it.
This new official “terrorist” designation could change that though.
It might mean it is now a criminal offence to use Instagram, even via a VPN.
It is also unclear whether the designation includes WhatsApp.
Banning this, the most popular messaging app in Russia, would cut citizens off from the outside world in a truly profound way.
Which is likely what Putin and his cronies want. And it’s also likely retaliation for removing all VK apps from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
It’s safe to say at this point that this is likely to escalate further and both sides are likely going to dig in for a much longer fight.
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This entry was posted on October 11, 2022 at 1:19 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Facebook, Russia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Russia Is Afraid Of Meta And Bans Them Under The Guise Of Being “Extremist”
Clearly Meta and the companies under that umbrella has made Russia nervous. I say that because Rosfinmonitoring who is Russia’s Federal Financial Monitoring Service, has added Meta who owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, to its list of terrorists and extremists. Keep in mind that Russia cut off Facebook in March, but this latest move by Russia is another step forward:
The battle lines between Western technology platforms and Russia were drawn months ago.
Facebook has not been missed as much as it might have been – because of the popular Russian clone, VK.
But Instagram remains huge in Russia – and the widespread use of virtual private networks (VPNs) means the ban on the platform has not actually stopped people accessing it.
This new official “terrorist” designation could change that though.
It might mean it is now a criminal offence to use Instagram, even via a VPN.
It is also unclear whether the designation includes WhatsApp.
Banning this, the most popular messaging app in Russia, would cut citizens off from the outside world in a truly profound way.
Which is likely what Putin and his cronies want. And it’s also likely retaliation for removing all VK apps from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
It’s safe to say at this point that this is likely to escalate further and both sides are likely going to dig in for a much longer fight.
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This entry was posted on October 11, 2022 at 1:19 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Facebook, Russia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.