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VPN Usage Has Skyrocketed As Russians Scramble To Find Ways To Reach Social Media

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On Monday, Moscow followed through on its threat to block the Meta-owned Instagram, essentially cutting off access to millions of Russians. The platform was the second most popular Meta app in Russia after the messaging service WhatsApp.

Influencers in Russia are now finding themselves essentially behind a new "Iron Curtain" unable to reach their millions of followers.

"On Monday, Instagram will be blocked in Russia. This decision will cut 80 million in Russia off from one another, and from the rest of the world as ~80% of people in Russia follow an Instagram account outside their country. This is wrong," Adam Mosseri (@mosseri), head of Meta's Instagram, posted on Twitter on Monday evening.

The move by the Kremlin came after Meta had not-so-quietly adjusted its content policies, which allowed for calls for violence against Russian soldiers and government officials, even from those within Russia.

Meta Global Affairs President Nick Clegg (@nickclegg), also took to Twitter to explain the policies, "Responding to reports that the Russian government is considering designating Meta as an extremist organization for its policies in support of speech."

In his official statement, Clegg wrote: "The fact is, if we applied our standard content policies without any adjustments we would now be removing content from ordinary Ukrainians expressing their resistance and fury at the invading military forces, which would rightly be viewed as unacceptable."

Influencers Cut Off From Their Followers

Regardless of what led to the blocking of Instagram and other platforms, many Russian "influenceri" were quite vocal on how the move would impact them.

"Roughly half of all my income came through Instagram advertising. To be honest with you, I am absolutely devastated that I am losing my page. I ran my profile for over 10 years. Most likely I will have to find new sources of income, will have to rediscover myself," Karina Istomia, a DJ and Instagram influencer with more than 400,000 followers told The Guardian on Monday.

"This [Instagram] is my life, this is my soul. This is what I have been waking up to and falling asleep with for the last five years, I'm in a state of resentment and nowhere near a state of acceptance," Russian fashion blogger Karina Nigay, who boasts nearly 3 million followers, said while holding back tears in a video that has been widely shared across social media.

However, Russian activist Lyubov Sobol (@SobolLubov) responded and called out Nigay, writing, "Blogger girl crying due to blocking instagram. Maybe it's time to stop being out of politics and turn on your brains? All the big stars who didn't speak out in the first week against the war probably just decided to keep quiet and wait it out. Just a shame."

@nexta_tv was equally critical, tweeting, "One of the #Russian bloggers cries that in two days her Instagram will stop working. She does not care at all about the thousands of dead people, including her compatriots. Obviously, her biggest worry right now is that she won't be able to post pictures of food from restaurants."

VPN Usage Skyrockets

In addition to the outrage, it seems that many Russians aren't simply going to accept that Instagram and other platforms are being blocked.

According to a report from Atlas VPN on Tuesday, demand for VPN (virtual private networks) had skyrocketed by 10,000 percent since the plug was pulled on Instagram and other social networks. VPN installs in Russia reached an all-time high and surged by 11,253 percent above the norm.

The report also highlighted that VPN usage was slowly increasing before the surge. Searches on Google began around three weeks ago, on February 25, 2022.

To date, Moscow hasn't attempted to crack down on VPN, which is one of the few tools that Russians have to overcome government restrictions to access free speech online. Activist may feel more comfortable sharing their opinions online as the VPN can hide IP addresses from the public, and allow users to access blocked websites and applications.

"It is difficult to predict how far the Russian government will go in its efforts to tamp down anti-war sentiment online and further shape the narrative of the war," Atlas VPN stated. "However, if the current trend of censorship continues, we can expect the demand for Virtual Private Networks to continue its unparalleled growth."

Let's hope the Russians using the VPN services are trying to learn the truth about the war in Ukraine, and won't just check in with their favorite influencers.

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