Facebook and Instagram announced Thursday that they would temporarily allow violence-inducing content on Instagram “Russian invaders” in certain countries — making an exception to its hate speech rules as conflict in Ukraine continues.
Per ReutersThese exceptions, internal emails indicate, will allow content calling to the death of Russian President Vladimir Putin, or Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, in countries such as Russia, Ukraine, and Poland.
“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,”A Meta spokesperson spoke to Reuters.
Meta reps did not immediately respond to ’s request for comment.
Meta stated that these hate speech posts would be removed if they were not. These posts include those targeting Russian soldiers, with the exception of prisoners of war, or targeting Russians where it’s clear the context is the invasion of Ukraine. This policy is continuing. “prohibit attacks on Russians,”The report was noted.
Last week, Russia’s internet censorship agency said it was banning Facebook in the country in response to the platform’s restrictions on Russian media. In Russia, Twitter was also blocked following this news. Other tech companies responded to the sanctions by stopping their ad sales in Russia.