Russia has announced that social media platform Instagram would be suspended in response to Facebook “temporarily” altering its restrictions to allow for calls for violence against Russian soldiers and President Vladimir Putin.

On Sunday, Russia’s state regulator Roskomnadzor said in a Telegram post that it will suspend Instagram’s service to its 80 million users on Monday. 

“Messages are circulating on the Instagram social network encouraging and provoking violent acts against Russians, in connection with which the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office demanded that Roskomnadzor restrict access to this social network,” Roskomnadzor posted on its Telegram account.

“Roskomnadzor decided to complete the procedure for imposing restrictions on access to Instagram at 00:00 on March 14, providing users with an additional 48 hours of transition period.”

In a statement on Friday, Meta’s President of Global Affairs Nick Clegg addressed the recent rule change.

“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,” Mr Clegg said on Twitter.

“There is no change at all in our policies on hate speech as far as the Russian people are concerned,” Mr Clegg added.

Peoples Gazette had reported Russia’s initial ban on Facebook, citing restrictions of access to Russian media on the platform.

Roskomnadzor had said there had been 26 cases of discrimination against Russian media by Facebook since October 2020. 

Meta Platforms Inc, Facebook’s parent company, had banned Russian state media from running advertisements or monetising on its platform across the globe as one of several sanctions targeted at Russia for the invasion of Ukraine.