Facebook parent company Meta clarified on Sunday that sharing posts “calling for the death of the head of state” violated the company’s user rules. The head of state here is likely to be Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Last week, Facebook temporarily relaxed its hate speech policy, allowing Ukrainian users to post violently against Russia. Facebook’s internal emails exposed earlier show that the company has also temporarily allowed users in Russia, Ukraine and Poland to publish posts cursing “Death to the intruder” and “Death to Russian President Vladimir Putin or Belarusian President Lukashenko.” The adjustment has sparked a certain amount of public confusion: what exactly can and can’t they do on Facebook, Instagram?
Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, said in a statement on Friday that the move was to protect Ukraine’s rights and that it did not condone “discrimination, harassment or violence against Russians.” On Sunday, he attempted to further explain the company’s stance to employees in an internal post.
“We are now narrowing down the focus to make it clear in the guidelines that it must never be construed broadly as condoning violence against Russians,” Clegg wrote in an internal post. He also said the revised policy applies only to Ukraine, and “only in the context of the rhetoric about Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine.”
“We also don’t allow calls for the assassination of a head of state,” Clegg said, without naming Putin.
Russia has banned Facebook and Instagram over the past two weeks, citing Meta’s content policy decision. Previously, Meta blocked Russian state-backed media accounts in Ukraine and the European Union and blocked all advertising from Russian businesses.