Russian influencers complain their lives are ‘being taken away’ after Instagram is banned

One said she was in ‘the first stage of grief’

2 years ago

A number of Russian influencers are complaining their lives are “being taken away” after Instagram was banned in Russia amid the war in Ukraine.

On Monday morning Instagram was inaccessible for the majority of those living in Russia. Earlier in March Russia banned Facebook after Moscow claimed it was discriminating against Russia by adding “fact checking labels” to posts by Russian media outlets.

Access to Twitter and TikTok has also been restricted since the war in Ukraine began. And then at the beginning of the week Russia decided to ban Instagram for the 80million users in the country.

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A post shared by Ольга Бузова (@buzova86)

Many Russian influencers took to Instagram over the weekend to say their “goodbyes”.

Influencer Olga Buzova who has over 23million followers posted a seven minute video of herself on Sunday crying over the loss of Instagram.

Olga, who is a reality star in Russia spoke in a white hotel robe about how she felt her life was being taken away from her.

She said: “I am not afraid of admitting that I do not want to lose you. I do not know what the future holds. I don’t know.

“I just shared my life, my work, and my soul. I did not do this all as a job for me, this is a part of my soul. It feels like a big part of my heart, and my life is being taken away from me.”

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A post shared by Ольга Бузова (@buzova86)

Her video has since been viewed over 2million times. Despite her worries Olga has managed to continue posting.

The influencer currently appears to be in the United Arab Emirates and has been busy posting holiday pics, including one of her in a bikini with the caption: “How did this all happen …💔”.

And she’s not the only one. An unnamed influencer posted a video of herself crying saying she was in the “first stage of grief” over the Instagram ban, according to Nexta TV Channel.

She said whilst crying the app was her “life” and “soul”. She said: “Do you think that for me, as an Instagram influencer, this is a source of income?

“To me, it’s all life. It’s the soul. It’s the one thing with which I wake up, fall asleep. F*cking five years in a row.”

One of the #Russian bloggers cries that in two days her Instagram will stop working

She does not care at all about the thousands of dead people, including her compatriots. Obviously, her biggest worry right now is that she won't be able to post pictures of food from restaurants. pic.twitter.com/LSdBiSlwHr

— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) March 11, 2022

Russian fashion influencer Karina Nigay who has nearly 3 million followers on Instagram has spoken out a lot about the ban and compared it to losing a job.

She said during a live video: “This is my work. Imagine you were just fired completely from work and you aren’t receiving any income at all, but at the same time you have expenses for your family, for your team if you have subordinates, and then all of a sudden you have nothing to pay your team.”

However the ban hasn’t seemed to stop Karina from posting as she currently appears to be in Kazakhstan. In her posts she has been sharing outfit videos and photos captioning them with statements such as “Love you, let’s not lose each other”, “first reel of a new era 🥂need maximum support” and “adapt is my favourite word”.

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A post shared by KARINA NIGAY (@karina_nigay)

Her posts have attracted comments from a number of Ukrainian users who are commenting “Wow, those are some problems you have,” and “I’m shocked, we have air sirens on here.”

Karina has responded to the criticism and told people to “get the hell out of here”. During a live video she said: “Listen, to those who are writing all sorts of filth, all these propaganda stories, I absolutely don’t give a sh*t. Seriously get the hell out of here.”

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A post shared by Валерия Чекалина (@ler_chek)

Influencer Valeria Chekalina who has over 10 million followers on Instagram and is currently pregnant posted earlier this week to express how sad she was she wouldn’t be able to share content of her baby once he was born.

She wrote: “Son! Soon you will see this WORLD 🌍 and me and daddy will finally meet you…But it’s a pity I can’t show your sweet cheeks here and show off your first steps!”

Valeria shared a photo from her ultrasound and described it as the “perfect photo to say goodbye” on Instagram.

Before the ban came into effect on Monday many influencers shared links to their profiles on Russian social media platforms such as Telegram and VK in order to maintain their following.