The social network is also temporarily allowing some messages calling for the death of Russian President Vladimir Putin or Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in countries including Russia, Ukraine and Poland, according to a series of internal emails to content moderators.
These death calls will be allowed as long as they don’t contain other targets or don’t have two metrics of credibility, such as location or method, according to one email in a recent change to the company’s rules on violence and incitement.
“As a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we have temporarily allowed for forms of political expression that would normally violate our rules, such as aggressive language such as ‘death to the Russian invaders,'” a Meta (FB) spokesperson told CNN Business. “We still will not tolerate credible calls for violence against Russian citizens.”
Russia said last week it was banning Facebook in the country in response to what it says is restricting access to Russian media on the platform. Moscow cracked down on tech companies during its invasion of Ukraine, which it calls a “special operation.”
Many major social media platforms have announced new conflict-related content restrictions, including blocking Russian state media outlets RT and Sputnik in Europe, and have also shown some exceptions to their wartime policies.
The emails also revealed that the Meta would allow praise for the normally prohibited right-wing Azov Battalion, in a change first reported by The Intercept.
Meta spokesman Joe Osborne said earlier that the company “is currently making a small exception to praise the Azov Regiment solely in the context of defending Ukraine or their role in the Ukrainian National Guard.”
— Rishi Iyengar of CNN Business contributed to this report.