From midnight Monday, Russian authorities restricted access to Instagram. Between tears and countdowns, some influencers in the country panicked, under the dumbfounded gaze of the Ukrainian stars of the network. An infuriating spectacle for them, who now claim to have given up on dialogue.
For nearly seven minutes, white hotel bathrobe on her back, Olga Buzova’s eyes cloud over. In a video posted on her account on Sunday, this Russian television star, second national influencer with 23 million subscribers, is in despair at the blocking of the network in her country, effective since Monday. “I wanted to tell you once again: THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING ??”, she wrote in a post. Far from being moved, Ukrainian Tanya Bobrikova is annoyed by these images: “Influencers in Russia keep total silence about the bloody war but they cry on Insta. I can see their priorities now.” she swings, bitter.
Freed had for the first time exchanged with this Ukrainian influencer in the early days of the Russian invasion, on February 24. On her Instagram account, this actress and TV presenter with 76,000 subscribers then relayed photos and videos of the conflict in the hope of attracting more donations. But also, she said, to warn her Russian subscribers of the reality on the ground. Two weeks of bombardment and exodus later, it has radically changed its tune. “I understood that many people in Russia really support the war in Ukraine”, she says. In the comments of her posts, her YouTube videos, in her private messages, many Russians would be, she says, “aware of the terror, the dead children, the mass murder of civilians”. And yet, “They still think Putin is going to come and save us.”
And the cascading reactions of Russian influencers to the announcement of the blocking of the network do not help matters. On Friday, the country’s authorities decreed that they were restricting access to Instagram from Monday midnight. A decision taken in response to Instagram’s announcement that it would make exceptions to its policy on incitement to violence by not removing posts hostile to the military and Russian leaders. Translation made by Putin: the network would spread Russophobic hate speech.
In a fit of panic, the Russian stars of the platform have therefore massively shared links to alternative networks such as the secure instant messaging application Telegram or the Russian social network VK, equivalent to Facebook. Karina Nigaï, a fashion blogger followed by almost 3 million people on Instagram, compares the loss of Instagram to bereavement: “I am still at the stage of anger and [celui] of acceptance is still a long way off”, she writes.
Alexandra Mitroshina, an influencer who has more than 2.4 million followers on Instagram, is worried, she, “for small and medium businesses whose business is connected to Instagram”. Anna Khilkevich wrote with emotion: “Instagram will stay with us, but in another form.” Before adding: “I’m launching a contest on my Yappy page!” A few minutes before the fateful hour, several set up a countdown. None made reference to Ukraine.
Tired of this show, Tanya Bobrikova claims to have stopped posting “for them”. She, who had to leave her home in Kyiv, now lives with her parents in western Ukraine, where the sirens sound several times a day too. Its publications, now, mainly relay appeals for donations.
And this fatigue, among the Ukrainian influencers that Freed had contacted, she is far from the only one to feel it. Two weeks ago, Masha Starovoit, too, claimed that her duty was to “broadcast what’s going on here” to its subscribers located on the other side of the border. Now, with firmness, this beauty blogger with 174,000 followers, replies: “None of us [les influenceurs, ndlr] don’t try to talk to these people.
Since our last exchange, Masha Starovoit and her two children have also moved to western Ukraine. “I don’t want to go and leave my husband, but I’m sure I will have to,” she says, desperate. Faced with the panic of Russian influencers, she enrages: “Our parents and loved ones are dying. They are crying because Instagram or Ikea are being taken away from them!” Indeed, in recent days, in addition to Instagram, Twitter or Facebook being blocked by the authorities, Russians have seen many Western companies such as Starbucks, McDonald’s and Coca-Cola soar.
Despite the official closure of Instagram, some Russian influencers continue to feed their stories, such as Freed was able to see this the day after the blocking, certainly helped by VPNs allowing them to bypass the restrictions. At the beginning of March alone, the most popular of these “virtual private networks” saw a more than 1,200% increase in downloads in Russia. Olga Buzova publishes from abroad. Currently in the United Arab Emirates, she had dried her tears and appeared all smiles on Monday, trying the “largest zip line in the world”. Disillusioned, Masha Starovit concludes: “The first days, we really believed that we could make them understand something!”
More nuanced, Ukrainian Liza Krasnova believes that the silence of her Russian counterparts may be linked to the law “against misleading information” adopted in Russia. This provides for prison sentences of up to fifteen years for the propagation of“false information about the Russian army, especially if it entails serious consequences for the armed forces”. “It is true that the influencers acted as if nothing was happening. But they can be arrested if they don’t say what the propaganda says.” pursues this blogger from Hungary, where she fled a few days ago with her son. On April 2, in exile, he will celebrate his 4th birthday. For this situation, Liza Krasnova holds only two people responsible: Putin and Lukashenko, the Belarusian president.