Facebook has temporarily changed its rules regarding violent speech. FB’s parent company Meta said the invasion of Ukraine has eased its rules to allow statements such as “death to Russian invaders” but not threats against civilians. Indeed, international condemnation of Russia’s invasion of its neighbor has provoked unprecedented sanctions from Western governments and businesses. Along with this, there has also been an increase in expressing anger through the online medium.
Facebook made the statement, citing the firm’s email to its content moderators, following a Reuters report, which said the policy was in place in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia and Ukraine. applies to. Facebook and other US tech giants have moved to punish Russia for the attack on Ukraine. At the same time, Moscow has blocked access to major social media networks as well as Twitter.
More pressure on independent media in Russia
Thus Russia has joined a very small club of countries banning the world’s biggest social network. China and North Korea have done this before. Russian authorities have increased pressure against free media since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine last month, although press freedom in the country was already rapidly declining.
Moscow also took action against Twitter
Last week’s decision to block Facebook and ban Twitter came on the same day that Russia backed the imposition of prison sentences for media that published “false information” about the military. In such a situation, Facebook played an important role in providing information in Russia. However, it has been criticized in the West for matters ranging from political divisions to the mental health of adolescents.