The authority installed by occupying Russian troops in Ukraine’s southern region of Kherson announced yesterday that access to Instagram and YouTube was now blocked locally.
Officials acknowledge, however, that the American social networks are still available through VPNs, reports Meduza.
In the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, Russians were reported to have disabled mobile Internet service by Ukrainian telecoms in late May. Moscow asserts these ties were cut by the Ukrainian companies themselves.
In Russia itself, access to Instagram was blocked in mid-March, as the authorities accused its parent company Meta of allowing hate speech against Russians, including the military, on its platforms.
YouTube has not been blocked in Russia for the moment, even though Russia have exerted considerable pressureon the company to filter content according to their harsh censorship rules. Last month a Russian court fined Google $260,000 for breaching data rules.
