Facebook and Instagram’s parent company Meta has explained that it will not allow users to make posts calling for the assassination of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and other members of parliament
Meta recently eased some of its hate speech policy, but only temporarily and in relation to users in Ukraine, allowing them to threaten attacking forces on their platform.
But this was only acceptable in the context of speech regarding the Russian military invasion of Ukraine.
This all comes after Russia opened a criminal inquiry into Meta because of the change in its hate speech policy.
Only days after the country restricted access to Instagram and Facebook following Meta’s censorship of some Kremlin-affiliated news outlets.
The clarification follows Reuters earlier report that Meta’s hate speech policy allowed for death threats against Putin and Belarus’s President Alexander Lukashenko.
They also reported that Facebook was allowing posts inciting violence against Russian soldiers within Eastern European countries.
Meta’s president of Global Affairs wrote in a statement that the company is now “narrowing its focus to make explicitly clear in the guidance that it is never to be interpreted as condoning violence against Russians in general.”
He also reiterated that Meta does “not permit calls to assassinate a head of state”.
