MOSCOW, November 1 – Novosti. The Council of Bloggers under the Federation Council sent letters to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Deputy Chairman of the Security Council Dmitry Medvedev asking them to review the blocking of social networks Instagram * and Facebook * (recognized as extremist in Russia and banned), the Vedomosti newspaper reported .
As reported on the website of the council of bloggers, it includes about 90 people. In particular, among them are Arayik Galstyan (over 19 million subscribers), Alina Levda (over 7.5 million) and Ekaterina Shreiner (over 4.5 million). Also on the list are several people who have more than 2 million subscribers, and a number of artists, such as Edgard Zapashny, Mitya Fomin and Roma Zhigan. In the descriptions under the photo of the vast majority of council members, there is a link to Instagram*.
“The Council of Bloggers under the Federation Council turned to President Vladimir Putin with a request to reconsider the decision to block the social networks Instagram * and Facebook * (owned by Meta, which is banned in the Russian Federation, recognized as an extremist organization), follows from the text of the letter. Bloggers sent a similar appeal to Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev,” the newspaper claims.
She writes that she got acquainted with copies of letters, the authenticity of which was confirmed by the coordinator of the council of bloggers Valeria Rytvina.
According to Vedomosti, Medvedev’s representative replied that the letter had not yet been received.
“Unfortunately, domestic social networks are not so popular among Russian users, and even more so among foreign citizens. Therefore, even more than six months after the blocking, they have not become an equivalent and effective replacement for banned networks,” the newspaper quotes the letter.
According to the authors of the letter, restricting access to these social networks “has negative consequences for Russian bloggers and risks for the whole country,” the newspaper writes.
“Russia has lost an effective channel for forming a positive image of the country, and Russian users have lost the ability to create content aimed at defending the interests of the country,” Vedomosti quoted the letter as saying.
The New People party reported in August that Alexander Demin, head of the State Duma Committee on Small and Medium Enterprises, intends to apply to the Prosecutor General’s Office with a question about the possible unblocking of Instagram*. Later, another representative of the New People, a member of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Anton Tkachev, said that he was waiting for a decision on the possible unblocking of Instagram * before the end of September-October.
In March, in light of the events in Ukraine , Meta Platforms* temporarily lifted on Facebook* and Instagram* the ban on calls for violence against the Russian military, “but not against the civilian population of the Russian Federation.” After that, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Russia raised the issue of recognizing Meta * as an extremist organization, and the Investigative Committee opened a criminal case on public calls for extremism and on promoting terrorism. On March 21, the Tverskoy Court of Moscow banned Instagram* and Facebook* in Russia for extremist activity, the decision does not imply punishment for users for bypassing blocking.
* The activity of Meta (social networks Facebook and Instagram) is banned in Russia as extremist.
