Facebook allows hate speech against Russians

Facebook allows hate speech against Russians.

FACEBOOK and Instagram will now allow hate speech against Russians within the context of the Ukraine war, according to reports.

Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta company, which owns social media platforms Facebook and Instagram as well as messaging service WhatsApp, will allow certain countries to call for violence and death against Putin and his soldiers, according to internal emails seen by Reuters.

The media outlet said that content moderators will give the green light on calls for the demise of the Russian President and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

Within the context of the Ukrainian invasion, Facebook and Instagram users in Ukraine, Russia, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania will be allowed to incite violence against Russians.

Although, Facebook said calls for violence against prisoners of war will not be allowed, according to Reuters. Violence incited against the country’s civilians will also be prohibited.

In the emails reportedly sent to moderators, the company is making “allowances for forms of political expression that would normally violate our rules”, Reuters reports.

The email seen by Reuters told moderators: “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-defence, etc.)”

As per the Daily Mail, Russia banned Facebook last week in response to what it said were restrictions of access to Russian media on the site.

Thank you for taking the time to read this article, do remember to come back and check The Euro Weekly News website for all your up-to-date local and international news stories and remember, you can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram.