“Network Bipolar”: Bloggers Are Divided About Unblocking Instagram

Senators seem to

Serious passions flared up in the Russian blogosphere. The “Council of Bloggers under the Federation Council” sent an appeal on Tuesday addressed to Putin and Medvedev with a request to unblock Instagram and Facebook, which are banned in Russia and belong to the Meta corporation recognized as extremist and banned in the Russian Federation. Senators hastened to deny both their involvement in the appeal, and the very existence of the Council of Bloggers. Well, the network LOMS themselves are divided into two poles: some stand up for the removal of blocking, others call it sabotage.

Trouble in the weekdays of the Federation Council was introduced by the lawyer and coordinator of the “Council of Bloggers under the Federation Council” Valeria Rytvina. On Tuesday, she sent an appeal on behalf of the Council to the President and Deputy Chairman of the Security Council with a request to unblock Instagram and Facebook. “The initiatives of Valeria Rytvina are not the official position of the Federation Council, committees or other bodies under the chamber,” the Federation Council said in a statement. At the same time, the senators confirmed that Rytvina is the coordinator of the Information Interaction and Content Analysis section of the Expert Council under the Federation Council Committee on Science, Education and Culture. True, the initiative social activist was also quickly taken out of there.

Valeria Rytvina herself responded to what was happening with an angry post on her VKontakte page, linking the senators’ sharp reaction to their desire to distance themselves from the bloggers’ initiative.

In general, the situation is very strange. Firstly, the Council of Bloggers itself appears as a kind of Schrödinger’s cat – it seems to be there, but it seems not to be. Legally, it doesn’t really exist. Valeria Rytvina said in her message that she was only planning to register this public organization.

Secondly, if you trace the history of the attitude of the Council of Bloggers to the resources of the Meta Corporation, you get the feeling that there is something bipolar in this. Most recently, representatives of the Russian blogosphere went to war against the brainchild of Zuckerberg, accusing the leadership of foreign social networks of embezzling funds that domestic bloggers have invested in targeted advertising on Instagram and Facebook over the past three years. The council of bloggers has prepared a class action lawsuit against Meta. Earlier, members of the council sent a claim to the company demanding to pay $1 billion in compensation to Russian bloggers. Valeria Rytvina then called the actions of the corporation unlawful and said that she would not criticize the possible decisions of the Russian leadership to block social networks.

Eight months later, bloggers showed a 180-degree turn. But did all members of the Council really stand up for the banned social networks as a united front? Not at all. Unity there and does not smell. Moreover, there is a strong polarization of opinions.

A member of the Council of Bloggers prankster Lexus (Aleksey Stolyarov), in a conversation with MK, suggested that the appeal to Putin and Medvedev was aimed at helping housewives who maintain pages on the now banned social networks. In general, the prankster noted that any discussion is a plus, but the final decision is up to Roskomnadzor and the Prosecutor General’s Office.

– Such a point of view (about the need to unlock social networks) has a place to be. Dialogue is important here. All the same, users continue to access social networks through a VPN, there is nothing illegal in this. At the same time, the WhatsApp messenger, owned by the extremist corporation Meta, continues to officially work in Russia,” said Alexei Stolyarov.

In turn, Yuriy Podolyaka, who is also a member of the Council of Bloggers, recorded a video on Tuesday morning in which he sharply criticized the appeal of his colleagues. According to Podolyaka, the authors of the letter are not professionals on the fronts of the information war, they did not consult with anyone, for some reason they “driven horses”, motivating the haste of sending an appeal with the risks of information leaks.

– It was Instagram and Facebook that were primarily behind the most powerful information attack that went on the Russian Federation after the start of the NWO. And it cost me a lot of work to repulse this attack. If today someone is lobbying for the lifting of the ban on these two social networks in the Russian Federation, I personally consider this a diversion against our country, a knife in the backs of our soldiers,” Yury Podolyaka said.

Can we assume that the Federation Council has unequivocally made it clear that blocked social networks will remain so forever? I think no. Senator Andrei Klishas hinted at a possible continuation of the discussion in Telegram: “I believe that social networks are the most important tool for feedback with people for all public authorities, and we need to properly build work with social networks, avoiding excessive regulation.”

Published in the newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets” No. 28903 dated November 2, 2022

Newspaper headline:
Bloggers hit the “net”