Washington:Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, announced the temporary easing of its policy and allowing violent speech against Russian for the latter’s invasion of Ukraine, Al Jazeera reported on Friday. This means that now statements like “death to Russian invaders” will be allowed to be posted on these platforms. The Russia’s embassy in the United States demanded the immediate stopping of these “extremist activities” by Facebook. It said “Meta’s aggressive and criminal policy leading to incitement of hatred and hostility towards Russians is outrageous”, adding “The company’s actions are yet another evidence of the information war without rules declared on our country.” The tech giant, defended its policy decision, saying that “We still won’t allow credible calls for violence against Russian civilians, adding that this allowance was only temporary”. The statement said that the policy applies to Armenia, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia and Ukraine, citing the firm’s emails to its content moderators. Tech platforms have had to navigate a slew of thorny issues related to the war in Ukraine, like when US Senator Lindsey Graham called for the assassination of Russian President Vladimir Putin in a televised interview and on Twitter. UNI ACL1302
