Interfax: Nearly half of Russians have social network accounts – poll

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(Interfax – Moscow, June 30, 2015)

Almost half of Russians have a social network account. As many as 23 per cent use it on a regular basis, 25 per cent use it from time to time and 7 per cent said they have it but do not use it, Levada Centre [pollster] has told Interfax.

According to a poll carried out among 1,600 people on 19-22 June, just under half of those polled (45 per cent) said they do not have a social network account.

Those who do mostly favour Odnoklassniki (72 per cent) and VKontakte, followed by less popular Facebook (22 per cent), Moy Mir (18 per cent), Instagram (9 per cent) and Twitter (8 per cent.)

Since they joined social networks, a third of users (32 per cent) have seen their friends and family pass away but they remained on their friends’ list. Respondents also said they kept receiving notifications about their birthdays or whenever someone updated their profiles with any content.

As many as 41 per cent of respondents believe that accounts of dead users should be completely and permanently removed.

A third (30 per cent) suggests giving the accounts a “memorial” status by indicating that the person is dead and let their friends see the pictures and also share posts about them with no option of adding them to friends lists and sending them messages.

The idea of granting their heirs or next of kin assigned by users when they were still alive the right to access the account was favoured by 24 per cent of Russians registered in social networks.

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