Facebook’s parent company Meta confirmed on Thursday that it would temporarily allow users to post posts calling for violence against “Russian invaders”. This change is an update of the company’s hate speech policy, which prohibits users from posting violent posts.
“As a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we have given temporary rights to forms of political expression that would normally violate our rules, such as violent speech, such as ‘death to the Russian invaders.’ “We continue to refuse credible calls for violence against Russian civilians,” a Meta spokesman told CBS News.
The policy update will allow for violent posts referring to the war in Ukraine to the Russian government and military. Its purpose is to give Ukrainians the opportunity to defend their country on social media.
The development was initially reported by Reuters.
Meta and the Russian authorities have been at odds since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Late last month, Meta said he would refuse to comply with orders from Russian authorities to stop posting checks on the platform by Russian state-run media outlets.
As a result, Meta said Russia had begun restricting its services to the country.
Meta also downloaded one coordinated business influence of Russia targeting Ukrainians on Facebook and Instagram in late February. The company said the disinformation campaign had links to another Russian network in the Donbas area that had previously been blocked by Facebook in April 2020.
At the same time, Meta said it had exposed and banned a group of hackers with links to Belarus who were trying to compromise the accounts of key Ukrainians, including journalists and high-ranking military officials.
New policy change allowing users to write posts calling for violence against Russian invaders comes less than a week after Russia blocked access to Facebook and other social media platforms, including Twitter. However, users in Russia can access Instagram and WhatsApp, which also belong to Meta.
Meta said last week it was working to keep its services available in Russia “as much as possible” and announced it would stop advertising targeting people in Russia. Advertisers in Russia also can not create or display ads anywhere in the world, including Russia.
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