Welcome to the Tech Mem Ride Home for Friday, March 11th, 2022. I'm Brian McCullough.

Today, Russia moves to ban Instagram and designate Meta as an extremist organization.

The EU and UK opened an antitrust probe into Google and Meta about ads collusion.

Stripe now supports crypto and of course the weekend long read suggestions.

Here's what you miss today in the world of tech.

Believe me, I tried to think of a Yakov-Smyernov in Russia, government bans you, or something like that joke,

but I didn't get there. Today I learned, by the way, that Yakov Smyrnaov was born in Ukraine.

Anyway, Russia has moved to ban Instagram

and designate Meta as a, quote, extremist organization. A source says that

what's app will not be affected as Russia thinks of it as a means of communication

quoting Bloomberg. Authorities blocked access to Facebook last week under a new media law, but the extremist designation,

if approved by a court, would effectively criminalize all of Meta's operations in Russia.

The company's Instagram app would also be blocked. The move

comes amid increasing tension between Moscow and US tech companies. Earlier

Friday, the Speaker of the violence against Russian soldiers due to the invasion of Ukraine.

Russia has already banned certain social media companies like Facebook and Twitter,

while tech companies have demonetized Russian state-sponsored media and blocked them in Europe.

In light of the ongoing invasion of Ukraine, we made a temporary exception for those affected by war

to express sentiments toward invading armed forces such as death to the Russian invaders.

A met a spokesperson confirmed.

These are temporary measures designed to preserve voice and expression

for people who are facing invasion.

...