Instagram customers in Russia have been notified that the service will stop from midnight on Sunday after its proprietor Meta Platforms mentioned final week it might permit social media customers in Ukraine to submit messages similar to “Death to the Russian invaders”.

An e-mail message from the state communications regulator informed individuals to maneuver their photographs and movies from Instagram earlier than it was shut down, and inspired them to change to Russia’s personal “competitive Internet platforms”.

Meta, which additionally owns Facebook, mentioned on Friday that the non permanent change in its hate speech coverage utilized solely to Ukraine, within the wake of Russia’s February 24 invasion.

The firm mentioned it might be fallacious to stop Ukrainians from “expressing their resistance and fury at the invading military forces”.

The determination was greeted with outrage in Russia, the place authorities have opened a prison investigation in opposition to Meta and prosecutors on Friday requested a court docket to designate the US tech large as an “extremist organisation”.

The head of Instagram has mentioned the block will have an effect on 80 million customers. Russia has already banned Facebook within the nation in response to what it mentioned had been restrictions of entry to Russian media on the platform.

The message to Instagram customers from the regulator Roskomnadzor described the choice to permit requires violence in opposition to Russians as a breach of worldwide legislation.

“We need to ensure the psychological health of citizens, especially children and adolescents, to protect them from harassment and insults online,” it mentioned, explaining the choice to shut down the platform.

© Thomson Reuters 2022