Facebook Says Hate Speech Against Russia Will Be Temporarily Allowed
Meta, the platform formerly known as Facebook, announced on Thursday that it will selectively allow users to post "hate speech" directed at Russian military forces and their government amid the ongoing siege of Ukraine, called on by Russia's Vladimir Putin.
According to Reuters, Facebook is "temporarily allowing some posts that call for death to Russian President Vladimir Putin or Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in countries including Russia, Ukraine and Poland ..."
"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," added the company's email statement.
Primary complaints against Facebook's policies have stemmed from its skewed definition of politically correct, often banning conservative public figures indefinitely.
Famous for its rigid hate speech guidelines and the indefinite banning of former President Donald Trump, Meta is attempting to take a political stance against Russia's aggression by slightly turning its spigot of free will on for users.
"We are issuing a spirit-of-the-policy allowance to allow T1 violent speech that would otherwise be removed under the Hate Speech policy 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.)."
Though the Big Tech titan proved lenient during the George Floyd riots of 2020 and misleading coverage of Trump during the 2020 presidential election trail, it's the Russian attacks on Ukraine that will serve as a perfect platform for its overdue display of piety.
"We are doing this because we have observed that in this specific context, 'Russian soldiers' is being used as a proxy for the Russian military. The Hate Speech policy continues to prohibit attacks on Russians," declared the email statement.
Read Bobby Burack's latest column on what's fueling this Russia-Ukraine war.
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