Web Desk (National Times)- Russia is set to launch a local picture-sharing application as an alternative to Instagram after the app was banned in the country on March 14, Reuters reported.

As a response to Meta allowing posts calling for violence against Russian soldiers, Russia banned Facebook and then Instagram. Meta believed that it would be wrong to forbid Ukrainians from “expressing their resistance and fury at the invading military forces.”

To fill that void, tech entrepreneurs in Russia are now on their way to finding a substitute.

Launching on March 28, the new application will be called Rossgram. The application will have added functions such as crowdfunding.

“My partner Kirill Filimonov and our group of developers were already ready for this turn of events and decided not to miss the opportunity to create a Russian analogue of a popular social network beloved by our compatriots,” Alexander Zobov, the initiative’s public relations director, wrote on the VKontakte social network.

Russia has, as a result of this conflict, filed a criminal investigation against Meta painting it as an “extremist organisation”.

Russia has been developing several domestic applications in recent times apart from Rossgram. For instance, an app called Yappy was launched which is a rival to TikTok.

According to a photo shared by Zobov on Vkontakte, Rossgram’s colour scheme and layout might be strongly similar to Instagram.