Meta Platforms allow calls for violence against Russian soldiers in Ukraine

In a temporary change to its hate speech policy, internal emails seen by Reuters on Thursday showed that Meta Platforms 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, the social media company is temporarily allowing some posts that call for the death of Russian President Vladimir Putin or Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in countries including Russia, Ukraine and Poland.

As a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we have temporarily made allowances for political expression that would normally be against our rules, such as 'death to Russian invaders'. Meta spokesperson said in a statement that we still won't allow credible calls for violence against Russian civilians.

The calls for leaders' deaths will be allowed unless they contain other targets or have two indicators of credibility, such as the location or method, according to one email, in a recent change to the company's rules on violence and incitement.

The email said calls for violence against Russians are allowed when it is clear that the post is talking about the invasion of Ukraine. They said that the calls for violence against Russian soldiers were allowed because this was being used as a proxy for the Russian military, and they said it would not apply to prisoners of war.

According to one email, the temporary policy changes on calls for violence against Russian soldiers are in effect in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, and Ukraine.

Russia banned Facebook from the country last week due to restrictions on access to Russian media on the platform. Moscow has clamped down on tech companies, including Twitter, which said it is restricted in the country during its invasion of Ukraine. Social media platforms have announced new content restrictions around the conflict, including blocking Russian state media and Sputnik in Europe, and have demonstrated carve-outs in some of their policies during the war.

Emails showed that Meta would allow praise of the right-wing Azov battalion, which is normally prohibited, in a change first reported by The Intercept.

Meta spokesman Joe Osborne 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.