Meta modifies hate speech policies surrounding war in Ukraine
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Facebook parent Meta (NASDAQ:FB) opened a can of worms last week after temporarily easing its hate speech policies. The social network allowed posts calling for violence against Russian soldiers, and even the death of Vladimir Putin or Belarus' Alexander Lukashenko, in the context surrounding the invasion of Ukraine. The policy, which kept up related posts unless they included "method and location," was only applied to users in Ukraine, Russia and surrounding countries, but has since been modified.
Clarification: Facebook is "narrowing the focus" of the guidance to make it "explicitly clear that it is never to be interpreted as condoning violence against Russians in general." Users will also not be allowed to share a post that "calls for the death of a head of state" - likely a reference to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"I want to be crystal clear: our policies are focused on protecting people's rights to speech as an expression of self-defense in reaction to a military invasion of their country," tweeted Meta President of Global Affairs Nick Clegg. "The fact is, if we applied our standard of content policies without any adjustments we would now be removing content from ordinary Ukrainians expressing their resistance and fury at the invading military forces, which would rightly be viewed as unacceptable."
Go deeper: Following the invasion of Ukraine, Facebook blocked Russian state media RT and Sputnik in Europe, as well as all advertising from Russian businesses. Emails also showed that Meta allowed praise of the far-right Azov battalion, which are accused of harboring neo-Nazi and white supremacist ideology. In response to Meta's (FB) content policy decisions, Russia closed off Facebook and Instagram for some 80M users across the country, while cracking down on other tech companies like Twitter (NYSE:TWTR).