In Dagestan, small businesses have begun to be fined en masse for using the Instagram logo

In Dagestan, small businesses have begun to be fined en masse for using the Instagram logo. Police raids are finding “banned symbols”

In March-May 2026, courts in Dagestan fined at least 26 people over Instagram symbols, according to findings by Verstka. Of those, 22 were entrepreneurs who displayed the logo to advertise their business accounts.

The banned symbols are being found during police raids, described in court rulings as “preventive обходs.”

Among those fined in Dagestan in recent months for using Instagram symbols are representatives of various small-business sectors: owners of clothing stores, baby food shops, pet supply stores, textile shops, the owner of a massage salon for children, and a hairdresser who placed the logo on his car.

In at least four cases, the punishment for entrepreneurs included confiscation of the “instrument of the administrative offense.”

For example, the owner of the women’s lingerie store “Flirt” in Makhachkala had a black sign hanging on the door seized, featuring a “minimalist image of a camera — the symbol of the social network ‘Instagram.’” And the owner of the women’s clothing store “Monika” had a sign with the Instagram logo confiscated.

All reports were drawn up under Part 1 of Article 20.3 of the Administrative Code: public display of extremist symbols. Instagram and Facebook are officially banned in Russia as products of Meta, a company recognized as extremist. In all cases, the courts imposed fines ranging from 1,000 to 2,000 rubles.

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