US-based Meta has temporarily allowed calls for violence on Facebook and Instagram against the Russian military in light of Russia's special military operation in Ukraine, but calls for violence against Russian civilians will remain banned.
"We have temporarily made permissible forms of political expression that would normally violate our rules, including violent rhetoric such as 'death to Russian invaders.' We will not allow calls for violence against Russian civilians," Meta spokesman Andy Stone wrote on Twitter.
The representative of the company, however, did not explain exactly how the moderation and detection of violations in such policy changes will take place.
Earlier Reuters, citing the internal mailing list of the company reported that Facebook and Instagram in some countries will not block users' calls for violence against Russian citizens and soldiers in particular. According to the agency, Meta's emails indicate that calls for violence against Russians are allowed when the post explicitly refers to the military operation in Ukraine. The company's policy changes apply to Armenia, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia and Ukraine.
According to the agency, the company will also temporarily not remove calls to death for Russian and Belarusian presidents Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko in Poland, Russia and Ukraine.
On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation in Ukraine in response to an appeal for help from the leaders of the Donbass republics. He stressed that Moscow's plans did not include the occupation of Ukrainian territories; the goal was the demilitarization and denazification of the country. After that, the US, the EU, the UK, and a number of other states announced that they were imposing sanctions against Russian individuals and legal entities.
GSV "Russia - Islamic world"
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Based on materials from TASS