Russian bloggers will be helped to get a billion from Instagram
The Council of Bloggers under the Federation Council of the Russian Federation drew up a letter of claim to Meta (recognized as extremist and banned in Russia) demanding compensation of $1 billion in favor of users and entrepreneurs of the social network Instagram affected by the blocking (owned by Meta, the social network is banned and blocked in Russia).
This was announced on March 31 at a round table in the Public Chamber by the founder of the council, Valeria Rytvina, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“We understand perfectly well that Russia was forced to respond by blocking networks to Meta’s statements. But more than 12,5 million people whose main or only income was related to the social network Instagram faced problems.
Often single mothers, disabled people and other socially vulnerable categories of citizens work through this social network. We are not going to defend the interests of millionaire bloggers, of whom there are about a thousand throughout the country. We gathered for the sake of small industries, self-employed craftsmen and charitable foundations,” said Rytvina.
According to her information, these users did not return to VKotakte, but generally left social networks for marketplaces. She believes that this threatens the monopolization of markets by large players. Rytvina proposes to provide government support to the affected bloggers, as well as to divide among them the compensation that she expects Meta to pay.
“We have prepared a complaint to Meta, in which we propose that the company publicly apologize to Russian citizens and pay compensation of $1 billion to the affected entrepreneurs. If the complaint we make today is ignored, we will file a lawsuit. We have enough resources and opportunities for this,” she noted.
The proposal was supported by member of the Public Chamber of Russia Ekaterina Mizulina (daughter of a famous senator).
“Any claims from bloggers should be addressed not to the Russian Federation, but to the Meta company itself. Bloggers have every right to file claims in court for compensation for losses incurred as a result of the extremist activities of these two platforms. The Safe Internet League is ready to provide full legal assistance to such claims,” Mizulina said.
In early March, Roskomnadzor decided to block Facebook in Russia. The department explained that since 2020, it has recorded 26 cases of discrimination against Russian media and information resources on this social network, including the official accounts of the Zvezda TV channels, Russia Today, the RIA Novosti news agency, and others.
Later, on March 14, the Meta company allowed the publication of calls for violence against Russian military personnel who are participating in a special operation in Ukraine on its social networks. In response, Roskomnadzor blocked Instagram in Russia on the same day. On March 21, the Tverskoy District Court of Moscow recognized the Meta company as extremist and banned its activities in the country.
The compensation required by the Council of Bloggers is more than twice Meta's annual revenue in Russia.
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