Rossgram, the Russian authorities' alternative to Instagram

Rossgram, the Russian version of Instagram.

© Rossgram

Text by: Dominique Desaunay Follow

3 mins

Access to Instagram is completely blocked for more than 80 million Russian users.

Rossgram, the Instagram clone, is set to launch on March 28, the Kremlin has announced.

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The Russian copy of Instagram has long been part of the Moscow authorities' desire to imitate American sites and the major Western social web platforms.

VKontakte, for example, is a carbon copy of Facebook, as is Yappy, which recently counterfeited the Chinese network TikTok.

This is also the case with RuTube, the Russian version of YouTube, the video distribution platform owned by Google.

Moderation on these social networks is almost non-existent with systematic filtering of content for Internet users.

The objective of the Russian authorities with these imitations is to exercise absolute control over the subjects that its population could consult online. 

► To read also: Russia: Facebook and Instagram "banned for extremist activity"

The creators of

Rossgram rave

about the launch of the new social network: " 

Don't worry, nothing will change and you won't waste time looking for the right buttons, the interface is simple and understandable to everyone

 ", they write on the home page of the official site of this pale copy of Instagram.

However, it risks being largely shunned, as is the case with all the Web platforms that have been launched previously under pressure from the Russian authorities, reminds us Bernard Benhamou, Secretary General of

the Institute of Digital Sovereignty

"

The Russian authorities may have considered the blocking of Instagram to be difficult for Internet users to bear.

This is the reason why they have created an alternative to this application.

But we don't know what the short-term success of this Instagram clone will be, maybe in the long term, as we see in other countries, especially in China, this initiative will become credible and sustainable.

But for now, we have the impression that this copy was made in a hurry.

This hasty move reminds us of that of a certain American president eager to create his own social network with the moderate success that goes with this kind of undertaking.

Currently, the most common way in Russia to circumvent censorship measures is through a VPN.

However, given the state of sanctions,

especially in terms of payment and online transaction available to the country's Internet users to acquire truly effective VPN programs, it is not certain that Russian citizens can still pay a subscription to these circumvention software from Western providers for a long time.

»

► Also to listen:

State censorship

Since the invasion of Ukraine, downloads of VPNs, software that allows users to hide their internet address and location by connecting directly to a computer server located outside the territory, have exploded in Russia.

Russians can thus access sites and social networks that would be blocked in their country.

According to the top10VPN site, the demand for these circumvention systems has increased by 2,000% in Russia since the invasion of Ukraine.

On the other hand, if the use of this type of software is still authorized, consulting blocked content is considered by law to be illegal.

And in order to stem the tide of VPN downloads, the Russian telecoms regulatory agency has decided to restrict access to the online stores of several providers of these applications, which make it too easy to circumvent the censorship imposed by the State. 

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