Meta Platforms Inc. Temporarily Allow Hate Speech From Ukraine Against Vladimir Putin

JAKARTA – Facebook's parent company, Meta Platforms Inc., announced on Sunday, March 13 that it is now further narrowing its content moderation policy for Ukraine to ban calls for hate speech such as the murder of a head of state.

The move comes after Reuters reported last week that Meta had temporarily allowed some posts on Facebook and Instagram calling for the death of Russian President Vladimir Putin or Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

Following this Reuters report, Meta said last Friday that the temporary change in its content policy, applies only to Ukraine. This was necessary to allow users to voice their opposition to the Russian attack. On the same day, Russia opened a criminal case against the social media company.

"We are now narrowing the focus to make it explicit in the guidelines that it is never construed as condoning violence against Russia's actions in general," Meta's president of global affairs, Nick Clegg, wrote in a post on the company's internal platform on Sunday, March 13.

"We also don't allow calls for the killing of a head of state... So, to remove any ambiguity about our stance, we're further narrowing our guidance to make it clear that we don't allow calls for the death of a head of state on our platform," Clegg said.

"This was a difficult decision. The situation in Ukraine is moving fast. We are trying to think through all the consequences, and we are closely monitoring our guidance because the context is always evolving," said Clegg.

Facebook also stated that there would be no changes to its policy on hate speech as far as the Russian people are concerned.

"Meta is against Russophobia. We do not tolerate calls for genocide, ethnic cleansing, or any kind of discrimination, harassment, or violence against Russians on our platform," he added.

Clegg wrote that Meta plans to refer the way they adapt the guidance it provides to content moderators to an independent supervisory board, which was set up to help the platform answer some of the toughest questions around freedom of expression.

Russia's communications regulator has imposed restrictions on Instagram effective Monday, March 14. Meta has previously restricted access to Russian state media outlets, such as RT (Russia Today) and Sputnik on its platforms across the European Union.