New Russian Law Bans Influencers From Advertising On Meta, X Platforms: Report
Moscow, Russia: Though social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram were banned in Russia soon after the beginning of its full scale invasion of Ukraine, several content creators continued to access both platforms by using a VPN (Virtual Private Network) which allowed them to benefit from lucrative partnership.
However, this comes to an end when President Vladimir Putin signed a new law prohibiting these mutually beneficial arrangements, as reported by Russian media. Under the new law, any Russian citizen involving themselves in a paid partnership or advertising on Instagram and Facebook will be subject to fines starting at 2,500 rubles (€26) for individuals and rising to 500,000 rubles (€5,300) for companies. The law also apply to other blocked websites and social media platform like YouTube and X.
Officials will be charged up to 20 thousand rubles and legal entities will be fined up to 500 thousand rubles.
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Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of State Duma, (one of the chambers of the Russian parliament, the Federal Assembly), said that the bill’s aim was to limit foreign companies earning income from Russia, despite the fact that Instagram and Facebook’s parent company Meta banned all ad campaigns in Russia in 2022, as per the report.
“The measures proposed by the bill will be a logical continuation of the initiatives we have already taken. Today, a situation has emerged where, despite the ban on the activities of a number of undesirable or banned foreign organizations in Russia, including social networks, advertisements continue to be placed on them,” Anatoly Vyborny, deputy chairman of the security Committee told Russian media Izvestia.
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According to Vyborny, the document introduces responsibility for advertising distributors. In particular, an amendment is being introduced to Article 38 (“Liability for violation of the legislation of the Russian Federation on advertising”) the law “On Advertising”.
As per the report, the bill was passed in the first reading on July 23 last year, but has not been considered since. State Duma told Izvestia that the new rules were supported and agreed by the Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Finance and the Federal Antimonopoly Service.
(With inputs from agencies)
