Meta will temporarily allow some violent speech, like “death to the Russian invaders”, in some countries; internal email: it will allow calls for death of Putin

Meta Platforms (FB.O) will allow Facebook and Instagram users in some countries to call for violence against Russians …

Reuters 2022-03-11

Context & Ripple Effects

Meta had already shifted its Russia-related moderation by restricting RT and Sputnik across the EU and demoting links to Russian state-media outlets globally. The new exception reverses the usual direction of that intervention: rather than reducing reach, Meta permits a narrow category of violent expression.

Russia treated the policy as grounds for a pending Instagram ban and an extremist-organization designation. Meta subsequently narrowed its public position to calls targeting Russian soldiers in Ukraine, while reporting indicated WhatsApp was being treated differently from Facebook and Instagram.

First-order effects

Facebook and Instagram moderation teams must apply a country- and target-specific exception to rules that ordinarily prohibit calls for violence, while Meta publicly narrows the reported scope of the policy.
Russian users of Instagram face loss of access after Roskomnadzor tied a ban to Meta’s allowance of violence-directed posts; Meta’s Russian services are no longer receiving uniform treatment.

Second-order effects

Russia’s designation process turns Meta’s content-policy decision into an access-control dispute, raising the operational cost of keeping Facebook and Instagram available in the country.
Meta’s distinction between Instagram and WhatsApp makes product function material to state enforcement: social platforms are targeted while the messaging service is reported as remaining available.

Third-order effects

The episode points to a model in which governments use platform moderation decisions as grounds for service restrictions, forcing global platforms to localize speech rules and access by market.
If that pattern persists, a single company’s services can fragment into separately governed endpoints, with social feeds and private messaging exposed to different regulatory outcomes.

The trend: Platform speech moderation is becoming inseparable from state access control, producing country-specific rules and uneven availability across a company’s products.

Discussion

@caseynewton Casey Newton on x
Facebook users in Europe can have a little death threat, as a treat https://www.reuters.com/...
@mikeisaac @mikeisaac on x
the original reuters tweet has already been aggregated, storified and reshared a zillion times by high follower accounts, and im sure those stories are quickly spreading across facebook this is all very meta....so to speak
@eculliford Elizabeth Culliford on x
EXCLUSIVE: Facebook and Instagram are temporarily allowing calls for violence against Russians and calls for the death of Putin and Lukashenko in some countries, including in Ukraine https://www.reuters.com/... (w/@MunsifV)
@etbrooking Emerson T. Brooking on x
Most of Meta's actions re: Azerbaijan-Armenia 2020 are not public, but I recall they did a lot of geo-blocking and permitted generalized calls for violence similar to this. To do otherwise - to erase evidence of an ONGOING WAR - would be insane. https://twitter.com/...
@maxseddon Max Seddon on x
This is a response to Facebook's decision to allow some calls for violence against Russia. “In this specific context, ‘Russian soldiers’ is being used as a proxy for the Russian military. The Hate Speech policy continues to prohibit attacks on Russians.” https://www.reuters.com/.…
@etbrooking Emerson T. Brooking on x
If you are piling onto this, at least read past the headline. If someone is at war, it is reasonable for them to call for violence against soldiers who have invaded their country. “The Russians” almost always refers to Russian soldiers in these nations. https://www.reuters.com/..…
@slpng_giants @slpng_giants on x
WHAT??? Facebook and @instagram are truly the worst companies. What are we even doing right now? https://www.reuters.com/...
@gerritd Gerrit De Vynck on x
the platforms are making up policies on the fly in a way that truly feels like uncharted territory https://www.reuters.com/...
@jeremylittau Jeremy Littau on x
“We don't allow hate speech except against certain people from a certain country” is one hell of a can of worms.
@bruce_petz @bruce_petz on x
@Reuters So Facebook is allowing Russians in Russia, and Ukrainians in Ukraine, to call for the death of Putin. But they obviously wouldn't have allowed Americans or Iraqis to call for the death of GWB circa 2003-2008 if Facebook had existed at the time.
@asadabukhalil @asadabukhalil on x
What is next? Will they rely on Hitler's scale of hatred to decide which ethnicities have spillable blood and which don't? https://twitter.com/...
@stillgray Ian Miles Cheong on x
Pedos now have more protections on social media than Russians do. Facebook and Instagram have changed their policies so that you can wish violence on Russians. If you wish harm on pedos, you will still be banned. Let that sink in.
@kanwalsibal Kanwal Sibal on x
Points to need to strongly regulate SM in India.Openly calling for violence truly condemnable. This is dangerous political meddling. Lesson here for us. When restrictions placed in India on SM to control violence we are attacked for curtailing FOE. Usual hypocrisy. https://twitte…
@kantrowitz Alex Kantrowitz on x
Meta critics should probably try to keep to the standard they want to hold Meta to https://twitter.com/...
@rachelbovard Rachel Bovard on x
Facebook bans incitement to violence except when it's calling for political assassinations of the right bad people. And then it's fine. https://www.reuters.com/...
@bryandeanwright @bryandeanwright on x
OFF THE RAILS: Mark Zuckerberg made a “temporary change” to his hate speech policies which now allow users to openly support Ukrainian neo-Nazis and calls for the death of Russians. 🤯🤯🤯 https://twitter.com/...
@slpng_giants @slpng_giants on x
This is yet another example of @meta just making shit up as they go and failing to make basic guidelines on content moderation. All this does is open the door for bad faith arguments on why others should be allowed to use violent speech. Just an absolute joke of a company. https:…
@axios @axios on x
UPDATE: Russia has responded to Facebook and Instagram loosening some hate speech restrictions over the invasion of Ukraine by accusing Meta of “extremist activities” and demanding U.S. authorities act against the tech giant https://www.axios.com/...
@momosasa22 @momosasa22 on x
Twitter,Facebook,Instagram,YouTube& other media platforms have a history of supporting violence&terrorism.Trump's “China Virus” &its subsequent violence & racial hatred have not been restricted or blamed by any of these platforms. Now they're just more unabashed,making it public.…
@jamesmelville James Melville on x
An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind. https://twitter.com/...
@dkiesow Damon Kiesow on x
@JeremyLittau Can we just admit that imposing speech policies on different countries from 5,000 miles away is colonialism and is harmful and ineffective?
@rmac18 Ryan Mac on x
I feel like this is a case where a tweet/headline should have more nuance (as the story does) so that people just don't go wild with assumptions on social media (which they are currently doing) [Original Reuters headline: “EXCLUSIVE Facebook and Instagram to temporarily allow cal…
@seahawkmjk Michael Kennedy on x
@KyivIndependent I am troubled by “Meta will allow for calls of violence against Russians in the context of Russia's war against Ukraine”. Not all Russians support Putin's War and many Russians here in the US are sympathetic to Ukraine- But Putin is fair game in my book!
@nickatnews Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs on x
“These calls for death will be allowed unless they contain other targets.” https://twitter.com/...
@nycsouthpaw @nycsouthpaw on x
There should be someone in charge at Facebook who knows what an obviously bad idea is. Unfortunately they have Mark Zuckerberg instead. https://twitter.com/...
@danpfeiffer Dan Pfeiffer on x
Facebook: The favorite tool of authoritarians at home and abroad https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
@watchchad Chad Prather on x
Facebook will block you for telling someone to get a life but you're free to call for acts of aggression against Russians. Terms of Use my ass.
@fboversight @fboversight on x
Reuters — Meta Platforms will allow Facebook and Instagram users in some countries to call for violence against Russians and Russian soldiers in the context of the Ukraine invasion, according to internal emails seen by Reuters on Thursday https://www.reuters.com/...
@richardhanania Richard Hanania on x
Facebook to allow calls for violence against Russian soldiers, but only if you're in Poland, Ukraine, or Russia, and as long as it doesn't include calls for violence against POWs. Also, you can praise Nazis now as long as they're Azov. https://www.reuters.com/... https://twitter.…
@etbrooking Emerson T. Brooking on x
Also - content universally shared on Twitter goes MUCH further than what is permitted in Meta's policy. All those celebratory Bayraktar vids and memes are calls for violence! Even Saint Javelin is an oblique endorsement of violence against Russian troops! IT IS A WAR. https://twi…
@martinsfp Martin Sfp Bryant on x
I completely understand social platforms allowing these particular death threats (people need to vent) but it does kind of perversely encourage people to go on a death threat spree against someone who should be very much alive and in the dock in The Hague. https://twitter.com/...
@bkerogers Brooke Rogers on x
from the makers of “your daughter's body image issues” comes “hate speech hall pass” https://twitter.com/...
@rmac18 Ryan Mac on x
This is the key part from Reuters and will apply only to “Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Russia and Ukraine.” It's not a blanket policy for people everywhere to call for harming Russians in any context. Will be interesting how this is enforced. ht…
@sanksp @sanksp on x
What if one day they arbitrarily decide who the next bad guys are and allow hate speech against that group too? Putin is wrong to have invaded, but is Meta really going to sit in judgement on who hate speech can be directed at? https://twitter.com/...
@mikeisaac @mikeisaac on x
not trying to ding reuters to be clear. headlines have limitations in nuance (i know this very intimately) and, ironically, social networks make it easy to click-to-share without reading beyond heds
@tompainetoday @tompainetoday on x
@andymstone @RMac18 So many people who should know better are freaking out about the headline without reading the piece. It's absurd.
@markamesexiled Mark Ames on x
Facebook is a violent hate machine, as everyone now knows. This is straight-up incitement to ethnic violence. Exactly what this world needs in the middle of Putin's war on Ukraine. https://www.reuters.com/...
@ramprasad_c Ram on x
There is no policy. There are just sides. Use the wrong pronouns and you are done but call for violence against Russians and you'll get a pat on the back. https://twitter.com/...
@mikeisaac @mikeisaac on x
all the content moderation policy around this space — literal wartime posting — is deeply messy, but the original reuters headline is reductive in an immediately virally shareable way the story itself has more nuance but again no real great answers here https://twitter.com/...
@witnessiam @witnessiam on x
Next they will say it's ok to call for violence against anti-vaxxers. Are you paying attention yet? https://twitter.com/...
@etbrooking Emerson T. Brooking on x
If Twitter permitted NO calls for violence against Russian troops on its platform, it would have to delete the account of everyone I follow and my account as well. Which imo would be a healthy outcome for most of us not in harm's way right now.
@polinaivanovva @polinaivanovva on x
BREAKING - Russia just started process of banning Instagram. It's huge because this is really a much loved platform in Russia and also the source of income for lots of small businesses across the country. And for young Moscow elites it's.. everything https://twitter.com/...
@maxseddon Max Seddon on x
Russia's is moving to ban Instagram, which seemed inevitable - and wants to have Meta, the parent company, declared an “extremist organization.” Even in the context of wartime repression, this is astonishing - it basically likens Facebook to al-Qaeda. https://t.me/...
@maryilyushina Mary Ilyushina on x
I mean hugely significant — WhatsApp is the most popular messenger in Russia, it takes up nearly 60% of all messenger internet traffic. We are talking tens of millions of people having limited access to comms, and for a lot of them VPNs are not familiar tech.
@rusembusa @rusembusa on x
☝️We demand that 🇺🇸 authorities stop the extremist activities of @Meta, take measures to bring the perpetrators to justice. Users of #Facebook & #Instagram did not give the owners of these platforms the right to determine the criteria of truth and pit nations against each other. …
@maryilyushina Mary Ilyushina on x
Important update — Russia signals it won't touch Whatsapp as it is considered “means of communication” but not “posting information,” state news agency RIA Novosti says citing a source.
@maryilyushina Mary Ilyushina on x
More dismissal from Rus officials: All Meta services may be blocked in Russia soon - First Deputy Chairman of the Duma IT Committee Sergey Boyarsky said on state TV. He acknowledged that Russians, “of course, will miss” the company's services. “But we will get through this.”
@b_fung Brian Fung on x
Russia says it's moving to ban Instagram: https://rkn.gov.ru/... And according to state media, Meta could be declared an “extremist organization”: https://tass.ru/... Huge ramifications for the many, many people in Russia who rely on these platforms for information.
@manveenrana Manveen Rana on x
I'm not sure this is going to help the Kremlin's message in the way they think it will. Revolutions have been sparked by less. https://twitter.com/...
@rasmus_kleis Rasmus Kleis Nielsen on x
Whether it's local independent media, Meduza, international media such as the BBC, or platforms - autocrats seek to control or ban things they are afraid will empower people. https://twitter.com/...
@akarlin0 Anatoly Karlin on x
Zoomer “porridges”, e-girls, influencooors, and rappers in shock and disbelief. https://twitter.com/...
@apolyakova Dr Alina Polyakova on x
This was inevitable after the ban on Facebook, but unlike FB, Instagram is used by many more Russians. https://twitter.com/...
@tariqpanja @tariqpanja on x
Can't think of a country's wealthy this would annoy more than Russia's. They LOVE Insta. https://twitter.com/...
@bnhwalker Ben Walker on x
The developing view that global sanctions could embolden Russian public opinion in support of the government would make a fair bit of sense... if the Russian government wasn't sanctioning the Russian people, also. https://twitter.com/...
@nerdjpg Alicia on x
To be clear, prior to this Meta just green lit posting content that is violent against Russian people and also content that is supportive of Azov https://twitter.com/...
@alexsalvinews Alex Salvi on x
This is extremely significant—and coming after Meta announced it would allow calls for violence against Russians on Facebook and Instagram due to the war. Instagram is the most popular platform in the country by far and plays a major role for businesses inside the country. https:…
@afpalasciano Andrea Palasciano on x
In Russia, I have done things like buy socks/furniture/book a massage/a restaurant/a dentist appointment on Instagram. Russian authorities called for Instagram to be blocked in the country - it would be a tremendous blow for small and medium business, it's their main platform.
@drlukemcdonagh Luke McDonagh on x
The effect of this could be to push Russia towards China's internet sphere (which is already quite bifurcated from the West's) with e.g. WeChat replacing WhatsApp & Facebook/Instagram https://twitter.com/...
@samramani2 Samuel Ramani on x
This is being reported on Russian state media, such as RT here https://twitter.com/...
@maxseddon Max Seddon on x
The implications of this are enormous. Instagram is the most popular social network in Russia by far and is crucial to small businesses - from beauty blogging to coffee shops. WhatsApp has 77m users in Russia, nearly double what Telegram has. And most Russians don't have VPNs.
@maxseddon Max Seddon on x
Russia now signaling that WhatsApp will be allowed to keep going. It's one thing to build a social network ecosystem from scratch, like in China, but when you don't have enough replacements and people are used to foreign apps, banning them is much harder https://twitter.com/...
@maryilyushina Mary Ilyushina on x
This seemed like a matter of time but still significant: Russian Prosecutor General's Office demanded to restrict Instagram in Russia. And also recognize Meta (manages Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram) as an extremist organization and ban its work in Russia.

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