Facebook complies with Russia's request to take down an Instagram post linked to Putin's rival
Facebook-owned Instagram has taken down posts related to bribery allegations made by Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny against the country's deputy prime minister.
Navalny, who is Russian President Vladimir Putin's fiercest rival, posted a video on YouTube earlier this month, that showed metals oligarch Oleg Deripaska allegedly meeting with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Prikhodko on the billionaire's yacht in Norway.
In the video, Navalny used Instagram posts from a woman called Nastya Rybka, who he claimed to be an escort. Rybka was on the yacht with both Deripaska and Prikhodko. The 25 minute video, which has been watched over 5 million times, claims that bribery took place.
Deripaska won an injunction against the video after a local court ruled that the video had violated his privacy rights. Last week, Deripaska said in a statement that Navalny's video showed "outrageous false allegations."
The female involved in the video took some of the Instagram posts down at the request of communications watchdog Roskomnadzor, but the Facebook-owned service also complied with the order to remove two more posts.
"When governments believe that something on the internet violates their laws, they may contact companies and ask us to restrict access to that content. We review such requests carefully in light of local laws and where appropriate, we make it unavailable in the relevant country or territory," an Instagram spokesperson said in a statement to CNBC.
"We are transparent about any content restrictions we make for government requests with local law in our Transparency Report."
Facebook's latest transparency report, which covers the period between January and June 2017, shows it restricted 195 pieces of content after requests from Russia.
The YouTube video is still online and has not been taken down.
Google, which owns YouTube, has not responded to a request for comment when contacted by CNBC.
Basic Element, one of Deripaska's company's, said that the injunction against Navalny's video "has nothing to do with any political struggle" between him and his political opponents. In an emailed statement to CNBC, Basic Element said that the decision, by Roskomnadzor, to block access to the content was to do with a court order rather than any "political motives."
"Any suggestion that it acted at the instruction of the Russian government is ludicrous," a Basic Element spokesperson said.
Roskomnadzor is yet to respond to a request for comment.
Prikhodko provided a statement to business newspaper RBC last week. "The political loser has once again tried to organize a provocation," Prikhodko said in the statement.
