According to reports, Facebook is temporarily allowing posts inciting violence against Russians. As per internal documents acquired by Reuters on Thursday, the platform will allow users in particular countries to call for violence against Russians and their military personnel in the wake of the Ukraine invasion. This is a rare incident when the social media giant has invoked a temporary relaxation to its hate speech rule.
As per an internal email to its content censors, the social media company is allowing some messages that advocate for the killing of Russian President Vladimir Putin or Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
Here is What Meta Said in Its Statement
“We have temporarily created exemptions for types of political communication that would normally breach our guidelines, such as aggressive rhetoric such as “death to the Russian invaders,” as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. We will continue to reject credible threats of violence against Russian civilians,” in a statement, Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said.
As per the Sputnik news agency, the US media behemoth would allow posts in several nations, notably Russia, Ukraine, and Poland, calling for the assassination of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
This judgement comes only days after Russia barred access to Facebook and other social media platforms, claiming discrimination against Russian media and information resources.
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What Do The Reports Say?
According to reports, the BBC and Deutsche Welle’s Russian websites, Twitter, and Apple and Google’s app stores were all blocked in Russia.
The Russian media regulator announced in a statement that “in March 2022, a decision was made to prohibit access to the Facebook network (owned by Meta Platforms, Inc.) in the Russian Federation.”
Meta president Nick Clegg said the company was doing “everything we can” to get its services back up and running.
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Military Action in Ukraine
On February 24, Russia initiated a “military action” in Ukraine, claiming it was in response to plead for protection from Ukrainian soldiers by the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the special operation is solely targeting Ukrainian military facilities, and civilians are not at risk.
A lot of nations, including the United States, Canada, and Australia, have launched a broad anti-Russian sanctions campaign, causing many multinational companies to exit the Russian market.
What Happened Last Week?
Russia completely blocked Facebook last week and has imposed similar restrictions on other Western digital firms.
Russian state media accounts have been blocked on several social media platforms, notably Meta, Google, and Twitter.
“We demand that authorities stop the extremist activities of @Meta,” the Russian Embassy in D.C. tweeted.
Axios Reached out to Meta and the Biden administration for Comment, But they did not Reply
Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s COO, told CNBC’s Hadley Gamble on Tuesday at a Cartier-sponsored event in Dubai for International Women’s Day, “Social media is bad for dictators, that’s why Putin took us down.”
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Social Media Platforms Take On The Issue
Meta has often battled to select what to enable users to post during times of unrest as one of the world’s biggest social media businesses.
In response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, social media platforms have added warning labels to Tweets from state-run media and reduced their circulation on the platform. Meta also created regulations to help combat conflict disinformation.
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