The authority installed by occupying Russian troops in Ukraine’s southern region of Kherson announced on Wednesday that access to Instagram and YouTube is now blocked locally.
Officials acknowledge, however, that the American social networks are still available through VPNs.
Occupying forces in the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions disabled mobile Internet service by Ukrainian telecoms back in late May (though Moscow says the Ukrainian companies cut these ties themselves).
Access to Instagram was blocked on Russian territory 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 has exerted considerable pressure on the company to filter content according to their harsh censorship rules. Last month a Russian court fined Google $260,000 for breaching data rules.
