INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Meta Platforms (FB.O) will allow Facebook and Instagram users in some countries to call for violence against Russians and Russian soldiers
in the context of the Ukraine invasion, according to internal emails seen by Reuters on Thursday, in a temporary change to its hate speech
policy, Reuters reported.The social media company is also temporarily allowing some posts that call for death to Russian President Vladimir
Putin or Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, according to internal emails to its content moderators.&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 said in a statement.The calls for the leaders& deaths will be allowed unless they contain other targets or have two indicators
of credibility, such as the location or method, one email said, in a recent change to the company&s rules on violence and incitement.Citing
the Reuters story, Russia&s embassy in the United States demanded that Washington stop the &extremist activities& of Meta.&Users of Facebook
- Instagram did not give the owners of these platforms the right to determine the criteria of truth and pit nations against each other,& the
embassy said on Twitter in a message that was also shared by their India office.According to Reuters the temporary policy changes on calls
for violence to Russian soldiers apply to Armenia, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia,
Slovakia, and Ukraine, according to one email.In the email recently sent to moderators, Meta highlighted a change in its hate speech policy
pertaining both to Russian soldiers and to Russians in the context of the invasion.&We are issuing a spirit-of-the-policy allowance to allow
T1 violent speech that would otherwise be removed under the Hate Speech policy when: (a) targeting Russian soldiers, EXCEPT prisoners of
war, or (b) targeting Russians where it&s clear that the context is the Russian invasion of Ukraine (e.g., content mentions the invasion,
self-defense, etc.),& it said in the email.&We are doing this because we have observed that in this specific context, ‘Russian soldiers&
is being used as a proxy for the Russian military
The Hate Speech policy continues to prohibit attacks on Russians,& the email stated.Last week, Russia said it was banning Facebook in the
country in response to what it said were restrictions of access to Russian media on the platform
Moscow has cracked down on tech companies, including Twitter (TWTR.N), which said it is restricted in the country, during its invasion of
Ukraine, which it calls a &special operation.&Many major social media platforms have announced new content restrictions around the conflict,
including blocking Russian state media RT and Sputnik in the European Union, and have demonstrated carve-outs in some of their policies
during the war, Reuters reported.Emails also showed that Meta would allow praise of the right-wing Azov battalion, which is normally
prohibited, in a change first reported by The Intercept.The Meta spokesperson previously said the company was &for the time being, making a
narrow exception for praise of the Azov Regiment strictly in the context of defending Ukraine, or in their role as part of the Ukraine
National Guard.&The post Facebook allows Ukraine war posts urging violence against invading Russians, Putin first appeared on Ariana News.
