In Moscow's latest move to restrict access to foreign social
media platforms, communications, and media regulator Roskomnadzor said in a
statement that it's restricting national access to Instagram. It said the
platform is spreading “calls to commit violent acts against Russian citizens,
including military personnel.”
Roskomnadzor cited a Thursday tweet by Meta spokesman Andy
Stone conveying a company statement saying it had “made allowances for forms of
political expression that would normally violate our rules on violent speech,
such as ‘death to the Russian invaders'.”
Stone's statement followed a Reuters report that Meta was
making a temporary change to its hate speech policy to allow Facebook and
Instagram users in some countries to call for violence against Russians and Russian
soldiers in the context of the Ukraine invasion.
The statement stressed that the company “still won't allow
credible calls for violence against Russian civilians.”
Facebook parent Meta, which also owns Instagram, on Friday
defended what it described as a temporary decision “taken in extraordinary and
unprecedented circumstances.”
“I want to be crystal clear: Our policies are focused on
protecting people's rights to speech as an expression of self-defence in
reaction to a military invasion of their country,” said a statement Friday from
Nick Clegg, Meta's president of global affairs.
“The fact is, if we applied our standard content policies
without any adjustments we would now be removing content from ordinary
Ukrainians expressing their resistance and fury at the invading military
forces, which would rightly be viewed as unacceptable,” Clegg added.
He noted that the policy only applies in Ukraine and the
company hasn't changed its policies against hate speech targeting Russian
people.
Russia has already blocked access to Facebook, limited
access to Twitter, and criminalised the intentional spreading of what Moscow
deems to be “fake” reports, as part of President Vladimir Putin's crackdown on
social media and news outlets like the BBC.
Big tech companies, meanwhile, have moved to restrict
Russian state media from using their platforms to spread propaganda and
misinformation.
YouTube said Friday it's blocking access globally to
channels associated with Russian state-funded media. It previously blocked them
— specifically RT and Sputnik — across Europe.
On Monday, Instagram will be blocked in Russia. This decision will cut 80 million in Russia off from one another, and from the rest of the world as ~80% of people in Russia follow an Instagram account outside their country. This is wrong.
— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) March 11, 2022
YouTube, which is owned by Google, announced the move in a
Twitter post, saying that while the change is effective immediately, it would
take time for systems to ramp up. It said it's also removing content about
Russia's invasion of Ukraine that “minimises or trivialises well-documented
violent events.”
The Kremlin refers to the invasion as a “special military
operation” and not a war. YouTube previously paused YouTube ads in Russia. Now,
it's extending that to all the ways it makes money on the platform in Russia.
Meta has also barred Russian state media from Instagram and
Facebook.
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