The owner of Facebook and Instagram will allow users in some countries to call for violence against Vladimir Putin and Russian soldiers.
Meta says he has temporarily taken into account some violent speeches, such as “death to Russian invaders,” that would normally break his rules.
However, he says he will not allow calls for violence against Russian civilians.
In response, Russia called on the United States to stop the “extremist activities” of the social media giant.
The announcement came after the Reuters news agency said it had seen internal emails describing the policy change.
“In light of the ongoing invasion of Ukraine, we made a temporary exception for those affected by the war, to express violent sentiments towards the invading armed forces,” a Meta spokesman told the BBC.
Under the changed policy, users in countries such as Russia, Ukraine and Poland will also be able to request the death of Russian President Putin and Belarusian President Lukashenko.
The emails reportedly said that death calls for leaders will be allowed unless they contain other targets or include a location or methods.
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Calls for violence against Russians are also allowed when the post clearly references the invasion of Ukraine, the emails reported.
“We demand that the US authorities stop the extremist activities of Meta, take steps to bring the perpetrators to justice,” the Russian embassy in the US tweeted.
“Facebook and Instagram users did not give the owners of these platforms the right to determine the criteria of truth and pit nations against each other,” he added.
Russia announced last week that it was blocking Facebook and its platforms, citing 26 cases of “discrimination” against Russian media by Facebook since October 2020.
Although access to the site had already been restricted in Russia, it was not completely inaccessible.
Moscow has cracked down on various social media platforms as it pursues what it calls a “special operation” in Ukraine.
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