A lot of people are using Facebook, the world’s most popular social media site, to spread material that calls for the death of Russian invaders and President Putin, and this is not good.
In internal papers seen by Reuters on Thursday, it was said that individuals in particular nations may use social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram to advocate violence against Russians and Russian military personnel in the aftermath of the invasion of Ukraine. This is based on the information included in the papers. as well as the
Internal emails have been issued to content moderators who work for the social media corporation in response to certain tweets that call for the killing of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, among other people. Some of these postings have been temporarily permitted by the moderators.
“In reaction to Russia’s intervention in Ukraine, our regulations forbidding utterances such as “death to the Russian invaders” and other aggressive expressions have been temporarily loosened. We will also not tolerate serious threats of violence against Russian citizens living in the United States. ” The following is a statement issued by a Meta representative:
According to one email, a recent revision in the company’s regulations on violence and incitement now allows demands for the leaders’ deaths provided they include additional targets or contain two markers of credibility, such as location or mode of delivery. “
This is what the Russian embassy in the United States said, citing a report from Reuters. The U.S. must keep Meta from doing “extremist things,” they said.
According to a tweet from the embassy, users of social media sites like Facebook and Instagram did not give the owners of these platforms the authority to define the criteria of truth and set nations against one another. This comment was also echoed by the company’s India branch office.
At the right moment, only Armenia, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, and Ukraine are permitted to make calls for violence against Russian forces.
A message to Meta moderators during the invasion informed them of a modification to the hate speech policy regarding the Russian military and Russians in general, which was sent to them by email.
It stated in an email that it had granted a “spirit of the policy allowance” to allow T1 violent speech, which would otherwise be prohibited under the Hate Speech policy, to be permitted when: (a) targeting Russian soldiers, with the exception of prisoners of war; or (b) targeting Russians in the context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine (e.g, content mentions the invasion, self-defense, etc.).
“Therefore, we have determined that the word “Russian troops” used to characterize the Russian military in this context should be looked into further by our research team. In accordance with its anti-hate speech policy, attacks against Russians are nonetheless banned. As previously mentioned in the email,
In a statement released last week, Russia said that Facebook would be prohibited in the nation due to what it claimed were limitations on Russian media on the network. As part of its invasion of Ukraine, which it calls a “special operation,” Moscow has put restrictions on technology businesses, like Twitter, TWTR.N, which says it can’t work in the country.
Due to the crisis, several major social media platforms have announced that they will enact additional content restrictions, including the censorship of Russian state media outlets RT and Sputnik in the European Union. They have also made exceptions to some of their usual rules during the conflict.
According to documents from The Intercept, Meta has agreed to let the right-wing Azov Brigade be praised.
This is based on an earlier answer to a question about the Azov Regiment. The company was “for the time being, making a small exception for praise… only in their duties as members of the Ukraine National Guard.”
