Suddenly, hate speech is okay on Facebook and Instagram. As long as it’s against the Russians. Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t like the way Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine. So, the T-shirt wearing executive proclaimed, hate speech directed toward that is perfectly acceptable, at least some of it. You still aren’t allowed to give specific details.
Facebook changes the rules
Rules are something which Social Media megaliths make up as they go along. That’s why Facebook and Instagram just decriminalized hate speech. You can still get censored for hate speech against anyone but the Russians though.
Meta Platforms will allow users “in some countries to call for violence against Russians and Russian soldiers in the context of the Ukraine invasion.” Reuters got a glimpse of the official internal emails on Thursday, March 10. They note, the change to the hate speech policy is only temporary.
You can now call for Russian President Vladimir Putin or Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko to be put to death. You just can’t say you’ll do it in the drawing room with a candlestick. “The calls for the leaders’ deaths will be allowed unless they contain other targets or have two indicators of credibility, such as the location or method,” one email spells out.
According to a Facebook spokesunit, “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.‘ We still won’t allow credible calls for violence against Russian civilians.”
It seems like here in the U.S., Facebook will be just as totalitarian as ever. The relaxed rules are meant for places like Ukraine and Poland.
“The temporary policy changes on calls for violence to Russian soldiers apply to Armenia, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, and Ukraine.”
Spirit-of-the-policy allowance
The email to Facebook and Instagram moderators notes that they “are issuing a spirit-of-the-policy allowance to allow T1 violent speech that would otherwise be removed under the Hate Speech policy.”
They’re doing it “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-defense, etc.)”
While the Facebook policy still continues to prohibit attacks on “Russians,” they “are doing this because we have observed that in this specific context, ‘Russian soldiers‘ is being used as a proxy for the Russian military.”
Moscow has cracked down on tech companies, including Twitter “which said it is restricted in the country, during its invasion.” Meanwhile, they are working extra hard to censor anyone who doesn’t tell the official story.
Facebook isn’t alone. “Many major social media platforms have announced new content restrictions around the conflict, including blocking Russian state media RT and Sputnik in Europe, and have demonstrated carve-outs in some of their policies during the war,” CNN writes.
For a little while at least, “Meta would allow praise of the right-wing Azov battalion, which is normally prohibited.” Only, of course, “in the context of defending Ukraine, or in their role as part of the Ukraine National Guard.“
