Russian Media Watchdog Demands Instagram Remove Restriction On Russian National Anthem

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 21st April, 2021) Russia's Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor) on Tuesday demanded that the Facebook-owned Instagram photo and video sharing platform lift the ban on playing the Russian national anthem.

"Instagram social networking service has imposed restrictions on user videos containing parts of the Russian national anthem. Roskomnadzor has demanded that the management of Facebook Inc remove all restrictions on content containing the Russian anthem imposed by Instagram under the alleged pretext of copyright infringement," Roskomnadzor said in a statement.

The watchdog added that the anthem, like other state symbols, could not be subject to copyright and denounced the restrictions as unacceptable.

"Systematic and deliberate attempts by Western social media to block content containing Russian state symbols offend citizens of the Russian Federation. We call on networking services to treat with respect the official symbols of the Russian Federation that are significant for Russians," Roskomnadzor added.

Similarly, YouTube users discovered in January that the platform was blocking videos that used the Russian anthem over copyright infringement, alleging that the copyrights belonged to a private company. Roskomnadzor immediately asked Google to lift restrictions.