Social media platforms Facebook and Instagram are temporarily allowing users in some countries to call for violence against Russian armed forces waging war in Ukraine as well as the leaders of Belarus and Russia, according to internal emails.
The communications to content moderators, reported by Reuters, came from parent company Meta. A spokesperson confirmed the interim allowances that break from the company’s own hate speech rules.
“As a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we have temporarily made allowances for forms of political expression that would normally violate our rules like violent speech such as ‘death to the Russian invaders.’ We still won’t allow credible calls for violence against Russian civilians,” Andy Stone, a spokesman for Meta, said in a statement reported by The Hill.
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The message to content moderators cited the two-week-old Russian invasion of Ukraine as the basis for the decision.
“We are issuing a spirit-of-the-policy allowance to allow T1 violent speech that would otherwise be removed under the Hate Speech policy when: (a) targeting Russian soldiers, EXCEPT prisoners of war, or (b) targeting Russians where it’s clear that the context is the Russian invasion of Ukraine (e.g., content mentions the invasion, self-defense, etc.),” an email said.
One email cited in the Reuters report said users in countries such as Armenia, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Ukraine, Russia, and Slovakia were among those allowed to use hate speech geared toward Russian troops. Calling for the death of Russian President Vladimir Putin or Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko is also being allowed.
“We are doing this because we have observed that in this specific context, ‘Russian soldiers’ is being used as a proxy for the Russian military,” Meta’s email said, adding that the company’s “Hate Speech policy continues to prohibit attacks on Russians.”
The Russian Embassy in the United States issued a statement on Twitter calling for U.S. “authorities” to stop the “extremist activities” of Meta.
“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,” the tweet added.
☝️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
After Russian armed forces invaded Ukraine, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Google announced efforts to prevent Russian state media from running advertisements and monetizing content.
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Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube were blocked by the Russian government in response to the platforms restricting access to certain state-run news outlets.
“In recent days, the social network has restricted access to accounts: the Zvezda TV channel, the RIA Novosti news agency, Sputnik, Russia Today, the Lentra.ru and Gazeta.ru information resources,” Roskomnadzor, a communications regulator for Russia, said in a statement.
The Washington Examiner reached out to Meta for a statement but did not receive a response back.
