Russia bans Instagram, influencers are crying. I am not even kidding! Russian IG influencers have literally cried their hearts out on livestreams bidding their global fans goodbye! Go to Instagram or Twitter to see them all helpless and disheartened. After Facebook & Twitter, Russia banned Instagram today affecting 80 million local users. A lot of them are big or small (micro) influencers and suddenly they are out of business. For some of them, it's their whole life and years of hard work. That's the biggest point of failure in WEB2. Governments and third parties can choose what you see or access. This is against the basic human right to Internet Freedom. Geopolitical events affect millions of people all over the world and the Ukraine-Russia conflict is the biggest example of that. Folks on both sides get hit badly in various ways.
Earlier this week, Meta (aka Facebook) refused to remove the content which is allegedly calling out for violence against the invading Russian soldiers. Normally any such video is flagged as per their policy and removed. But this time, they changed the rules to promote their Master's propaganda in order to combat Putin's propaganda. In response to this move, the Russian government suddenly decided to ban these websites in the country. This will cut off Russians even more than before from the outside world. A lot of influencers including some of the top media personalities and children of several Russian Oligarchs have expressed their views against Putin on Instagram.
A billion-dollar worth couldn't stop Putin from censoring your voice in the country you live in. Centralized social media is prone to censorship. Your country can ban the platform or the platform can ban you. These two swords will always hover over your neck for lifetime! They will always try to show you what they want you to see. They want to control the info that is fed to you and that's the reason why I have stopped using Facebook completely a year ago. Putin and the west, both run propaganda machines to brainwash their people. They don't want you to see the bird's eye view. You are just a pawn in their chess which gets sacrificed and fed with lies over and over again! Clearly, Russia has pulled off a China to make matters worse for its poor citizens.
We don't want a world where people are blocked or banned for expressing their views on the internet. We also don't want a world where you don't get to choose the source of information. A decentralized social media platform could solve these problems very well. Using blockchain technology, they provide an environment that is censorship-resistant and you fully own your content. Nobody can block you and your content is immutable. Big techs sell our data, governments use our personal data against us. They also feed us with lies and push their propaganda down our throats. This is impossible to do on a platform that is decentralized and no central entity owns it.
Decentralized social media (SocialFi) platforms are not new, just less famous because none of them provides an experience as good as Youtube or Facebook in terms of features. But they are in the making and progressing with each passing day. In a few years, they will hit the world by storm and more people will transition to avoid such bans. Hive Blockchain is one such technology that has in-built social elements. Since the transactions are fast and feeless, it's quite easy to create social platforms, Dapps, and communities over it. Also, you can monetize your content from day one! These platforms also come with DeFi elements combining social and financial attributes together to give you a rich SocialFi experience.
What the Russian government has done is simply a call to move to decentralized systems. Russians have already been cut off from the world due to worldwide sanctions and now this will deprive them of their right to information. It would be great if they could quickly move and adapt to decentralized social media platforms where they can freely do whatever the hell they want without the government's intervention. I hope they will!
What do you guys think? I there a growing need for decentralized social media platforms? Comment below!
