MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Meta social media: violence OK if against Russians

Meta spokesperson Andy Stone eventually confirmed the reports through Twitter

Mark Zuckerberg's Meta, the parent company owning social media giants Facebook and Instagram will not object to postings calling for violence if they are addressed at the Russian Federation or members of its government, particularly President Vladimir Putin, whose death may be freely wished for.

Meta will allow these types of messages so long as they do not include information on mechanisms or locations.

“As a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we have made temporary allowances for political speech that would normally violate our rules; for example, violent speech such as 'death to Russian invaders.' We do not allow credible calls for violence against Russian civilians,” Meta said in an internal document to which Reuters claims to have had access.

The changes in the company’s policy were due to Russia’s military operation in Ukraine. In this new scenario, calls for violence against Russians are permitted when the message clearly mentions the military operation in Ukraine. The changes in the company’s policy are applicable for users from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Hungary, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine, and Estonia, it was reported.

In addition to Putin, users in Poland, Russia, and Ukraine may call for the death of Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko.

Meta spokesperson Andy Stone eventually confirmed the reports through Twitter, adding that although calls for violence against the Russian military are permitted, such calls against civilians will remain prohibited.

“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,” he said.

The spokesperson did not specify how such content will be monitored or moderated.