Russia will ban Instagram in the country from March 14, citing 'calls for violence against Russians' on the platform

• Russia announced it will ban Instagram on March 14, a week after blocking Facebook.
• The country's communications agency cited "calls for violence against Russians" as the reason.

Russia's communications agency Roskomnadzor announced that it will ban Instagram in the country from March 14, according to a statement on the agency's website.

The statement, which was released on Friday, reads: "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."

The announcement comes a week after Russia blocked access to Facebook. The communications agency said that decision was a result of Meta making "an unprecedented decision by allowing the posting of information containing calls for violence against Russian citizens."

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Meta did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment made outside of normal working hours.

Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, tweeted on Friday that 80 million Russians will be cut off from one another, and "from the rest of the world."

—Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) March 11, 2022

Insider's Isobel Asher Hamilton reported on Friday that Russia's Prosecutor General's Office asked Meta to be labeled as an "extremist organization" under Russian law.

According to internal emails seen by Reuters on Thursday, Meta had created exemptions in its hate speech rules to temporarily allow Facebook and Instagram users to call for the death of President Putin, as well as violence against Russian soldiers.