Although hate speech is prohibited on Facebook , the current situation of geopolitical conflict has led Meta to relax its service policies.
Meta has relaxed its policies on hate speech allowing Facebook and Instagram social network users to vent all their anger against Russia and the actions of its president Vladimir Putin regarding the invasion of Ukraine .
According to Reuters , the company has sent a memo to Meta employees stating that they will also allow some posts calling for the death of Putin or Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko , one of Russia’s regime allies.
“As a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we have temporarily allowed forms of political expression that would normally violate our rules, such as violent speech such as ‘death to the Russian invaders.’ We will not yet allow credible calls for violence against Russian civilians ,” a Meta spokesman said.
☝️We demand that 🇺🇸 authorities stop the extremist activities of @Meta, take measures to bring the perpetrators to justice. Users of #Facebook & #Instagram did not give the owners of these platforms the right to determine the criteria of truth and pit nations against each other. https://t.co/1RkrjRmEtA pic.twitter.com/sTacSm4nDt
— Russian Embassy in USA 🇷🇺 (@RusEmbUSA) March 11, 2022
not everyone agrees
According to Meta ‘s statement , death calls for leaders containing other targets, such as location and method, will be allowed, the statement said, in a recent change to the company’s rules on incitement to violence . .
The Russian embassy in the United States has demanded that Washington stop “extremist activities” in Meta.
“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 ,” the Russian embassy said on Twitter.
The changes regarding incitement to violence in Meta applies to Armenia, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia and Ukraine, according to a Reuters source .
