Russia launched a series of domestic social networks to replace Instagram and YouTube

The event that Russia banned Instagram in its territory from March 14 affected 80 million users in Russia, because about 80% of users in Russia follow Instagram accounts outside their country.

Russia launched a series of domestic social networks to replace Instagram and YouTube

To make domestic users feel less “empty”, Russia launched an Instagram alternative photo-sharing application called Rossgram. This app is very similar to Instagram, from the color palette, icons, features to other branding features.

Besides, Grustnogram was also released. Grustnogram, or Sadgram in English, is known as a black-and-white version of Instagram, where Russians can post dark, melancholy photos to ” lament” online isolation.

“We are saddened that many good and popular services are temporarily shutting down in Russia for various reasons,” the creators wrote on Grustnogram.

Alexander Tokarev, the creator of Grustnogram, says that he was inspired to create the app after seeing Rossgram. “In total, it took four people working continuously for seven days to put the site together,” Alexander shared.

Currently, a number of Russian state media and government agencies have started transferring their videos to RuTube, a YouTube alternative social network owned by Gazprom-Media – the largest media group in Russia Russia.

Authorities have been encouraging Russian influencers to switch to the platform even before the fighting broke out. Uploads will be heavily censored before being posted to the website, but Russians who register through the government website including passport information may be directly authorized.

In addition, Russia also launched NashStore, an application to replace Google Play, using the Mir payment system – a domestic payment solution instead of Visa and Mastercard. win.

The list of products, which will likely include movies, TV shows and video games, will also be controlled by a Russian state agency.

On March 30, Russian President Vladimir Putin also ordered government agencies to stop orders for foreign operating systems, including popular Microsoft products, citing “guaranteeing technological independence and security of information infrastructure in Russia”. Russian government offices have also been ordered to stop using foreign operating systems by 2025.

For now, however, some Russian officials and even agencies like the Ministry of Defense continue to use apps like Facebook despite the decision to officially ban Meta (Facebook’s parent company).

When launching similar versions with globally famous social platforms, Russia will face intellectual property problems. Regarding this, on March 30, the Russian government announced that it will start implementing a parallel import mechanism, which allows to bypass copyright restrictions.

Huong Dung(According to The Guardian)