Meta Platforms made a temporary change to its hate speech policy in order to allow Facebook and Instagram users in some countries to call for violence against Russians and Russian soldiers in the context of the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. Meta will also temporarily allow some posts that call for death to the Russian President and Belarusian President.
The change in Meta’s hate speech policy was discussed in internal emails seen by Reuters that were sent to its content moderators.
A Meta spokesperson said in a statement that the temporary change is a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in order to allow political expression that would typically violate violent speech rules, including the phrase “death to the Russian invaders.” The statement said the platforms will not allow credible calls for violence against Russian civilians.
Calls for the death of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko will be allowed unless the threats contain other targets, or have two indicators of credibility, for example, location and method.
The Russian Embassy in the United States demanded that Washington stop “extremist activities” being conducted by Meta, saying that users of Facebook and Instagram did not give Meta the right to “determine the criteria of truth and pit nations against each other.”
The 12 countries with edited hate speech rules are currently Ukraine, Russia, Poland, Romania, Hungary, Georgia, Slovakia, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. In these countries, users can call for violence to Russian soldiers and leaders.
Moderators were told by Meta that the change pertains to both Russian soldiers and to Russians in context of the invasion of Ukraine. The email said that this is because in the context “Russian soldiers” is being used as a phrase to describe the Russian military.
Russia banned Facebook in the country last week.
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