Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is doing its best for this. adapt moderation rules to the war in Ukraine. As Vladimir Putin’s troops stepped up airstrikes, the group pledged to be resilient in the face of publications critical of the Russian military.
“DDue to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, we are tolerant of forms of political expression that would normally violate our rules of violent speech, such as Death to the Russian Invaders.” Meta’s head of communications, Andy Stone, explains to AFP.
Facebook allows death calls from Russian soldiers, but rejects posts aimed at civilians
Concretely, Facebook and Instagram do not automatically delete posts claiming the death of Russian soldiers. As a general rule, such messages are censored by moderators social networks. Posts that call for violence clearly violate the rules of both platforms.
This exceptionally liberal policy is reserved for certain countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia and ‘Ukraine. Meta, on the other hand, rejects all posts with purpose. Russian people. ““We continue to reject credible calls for violence against Russian civilians,” he said. says the manager. Calls for violence should be directed at Kremlin soldiers.
This isn’t the first time Facebook has had to adapt its moderation rules to events shaking certain parts of the world. Last June, the social network specifically allowed posts claiming the death of Ali Khamenei, the chief guide of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
At the same time, the digital giant continues to block Russian propaganda. Recently, Facebook removes posts from the Russian Embassy in the UK. The embassy had claimed, without the slightest proof, that a woman in a photograph of a maternity hospital destroyed by the Russian army was an actress paid for by Ukraine. The message from the Russian embassy assured that the building was empty. Twitter also censored these statements.
