Blind Eyed Facebook Allows “Death to Russian Invaders”, What about “Israel”?!

By Staff, Agencies 

Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has temporarily eased its policy on violent speech following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, saying it will allow statements such as “death to Russian invaders.”

The policy decision was met immediately with controversy, with Russia’s embassy in the United States demanding on Friday that Washington stop the “extremist activities” of the Facebook owner.

“Meta’s aggressive and criminal policy leading to incitement of hatred and hostility towards Russians is outrageous,” the embassy said in a statement. “The company’s actions are yet another evidence of the information war without rules declared on our country.”

The tech giant, however, defended its policy decision.

“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,'” it in a statement.

“We still won’t allow credible calls for violence against Russian civilians,” it added.

Meta’s statement followed a report by Reuters news agency that said the policy applies to Armenia, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia and Ukraine, citing the firm’s emails to its content moderators.

The firm did not reply to a request seeking confirmation of the policy’s geographic boundaries.

Meta, which counts billions of users globally across its platforms, has previously struggled with what it would allow people to post in moments of upheaval.

In July 2021, the firm temporarily allowed posts calling for “death to Khamenei”, referring to the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution His Eminence Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei.