Actress Olga Polyakova, the wife of State Duma deputy Alexander Khinshtein, who became one of the authors of the bill banning advertising on «extremist» social networks, sells advertising on Instagram, a subscriber of the Astra Telegram channel drew attention to this.
Polyakova has more than 200 thousand subscribers on Instagram. In a conversation with «Beware, News», the actress's agent said that she «saw publications» about the advertising, but could not comment on them, citing Polyakova's busy schedule.
The actress's profile header indicated an email address for contacting with advertising questions. However, after publications about this, the word «advertisement» disappeared from her page. Khinshtein himself has not updated his page on the social network since 2022.
The day before, the State Duma adopted in the first reading a bill prohibiting the placement of advertising on the websites of «undesirable» and «extremist» organizations, as well as «other information resources, access to which is restricted in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation.»
The explanatory note directly mentions Instagram and Facebook, which are blocked in Russia. After the war in Ukraine began, A Russian court has recognized the Meta company, which owns both social networks, as an «extremist organization.»
«Let me remind you that in the spring of 2022, the state was forced to respond to the Russophobic hysteria of the Meta company, which, in fact, allowed Facebook and Instagram to post calls for violence against Russians. After the blocking, their audience remained quite large — and extremist platforms continue to earn money on the Russian advertising market. It is not hard to guess where this income is directed. And the income is significant: in just five months of 2024, the volume of advertising budgets on Instagram amounted to 2.2 billion rubles,” Khinshtein commented on the initiative adopted in the first reading.