Internal emails seen by Reuters showed on Thursday that Meta Platforms will allow Facebook and Instagram users in some countries to call for violence against Russians and Russian soldiers in connection with Russia's war on Ukraine, in a temporary change of its anti-hate speech policy.
According to internal messages to content moderators, the social media company will also temporarily allow some posts calling for the "death" of Russian President Vladimir Putin or his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko in countries including Russia, Ukraine and Poland.
"Due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we have temporarily allowed forms of political expression that typically violate our rules on violent rhetoric such as 'Death to Russian Invas'," Andy Stone, who is responsible for communications at Meta, the parent company of Facebook, said in a statement.
In return, he added, Facebook would not allow "any credible calls for violence against Russian civilians."
According to Agence France-Presse.
One letter said calls for leaders to die would be allowed unless they included other goals, or included indications of seriousness such as location or means, in a recent change to the company's anti-violence and incitement rules.
The Russian embassy in Washington cited the Reuters story and demanded that the United States stop Meta's "extremist activities".
"Facebook and Instagram users did not give the owners of these platforms the right to set standards of truth and turn countries against each other," the embassy said in a message on Twitter.
Change in hate speech policy regarding Russian soldiers
Temporary policy changes regarding calls for violence against Russian soldiers apply to Armenia, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia and Ukraine, according to one of the emails.
Last week, Russia said it would ban Facebook in the country in response to what it said were restrictions on access to Russian media on the platform.
Moscow has cracked down on technology companies - including Twitter, which it said face restrictions in the country - during its war on Ukraine, which Russia describes as a "special operation".
And last week, Russia adopted a law that punishes with imprisonment for up to 15 years anyone who publishes information aimed at "discrediting" the army or calls for the imposition of sanctions on Moscow.
Since Russian forces began their war on Ukraine, most American technology giants have severed ties with Moscow.
In this context, Microsoft and Apple suspended sales of their products in Russia, while Netflix, Intel and Airbnb suspended their activities in Russia. this country.