Sydney Sweene: Facebook condones Fake News and posts urging Violence & Killing of Russians

Facebook allows posts urging violence against invading Russians

Tech giant says will not allow credible threats against civilians but Russia demands US stop company’s ‘extremist activities’.

Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has temporarily eased its policy on violent speech following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, saying it will allow statements such as “death to Russian invaders” but not credible threats against civilians.

The policy decision was met immediately with controversy, with Russia’s embassy in the United States demanding on Friday that Washington stop the “extremist activities” of the Facebook owner.

“Meta’s aggressive and criminal policy leading to incitement of hatred and hostility towards Russians is outrageous,” the embassy said in a statement. “The company’s actions are yet another evidence of the information war without rules declared on our country.”

The tech giant, however, defended its policy decision.

“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,’” it in a statement.

Meta’s statement followed a report by Reuters news agency that said 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.

The firm did not reply to a request seeking confirmation of the policy’s geographic boundaries.

Similarly, no comment on why Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine who has a track record of anti-democracy, jailing opposition, shut down news outlets of his rivals, is allowed to spread “fake news” on their platform?