Facebook relaxes hate speech guidelines against Russia, allows posts calling for Putin's death

Meta Platforms will allow Facebook and Instagram users in some countries to call for violence against Russian troops, Reuters reported Friday. It represents a temporary shift in Meta's hate speech policy.

The social media giant is also temporarily allowing some posts that call for the death of Russian President Vladimir Putin or Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

A Meta statement on the issue read: "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.' We still won't allow credible calls for violence against Russian civilians."

The Russian Embassy in the United States demanded that Washington stop Meta's "extremist activities," Reuters news agency reported.

"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," the embassy said on Twitter.