UN rejects Meta's permission to use hate speech against Russian soldiers
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said that such language is unacceptable, "wherever it comes from."
Dujarric, who is a spokesman for António Guterres, director-general of the United Nations Organization (UN), rejected this Friday the permission that the Meta corporation, owner of Instagram and Facebook, granted to its users so that they could freely use a language of violence and hatred towards the Russian troops that invaded Ukraine on February 26.
In addition, the UN official stated that the organization he represents is clearly and forcefully opposed to any hate speech or "call to violence", as they ensure that this type of language is inconceivable and inappropriate on the part of any person in the world.
For his part, the spokesman for Meta, Andy Stone, reaffirmed this Thursday that the change in the company's policies allows, temporarily, to make a violent speech and that it incites the death of Russian soldiers, but he detailed that still Calls for violence against Russian civilians are prohibited.
Likewise, it was learned that publications that incite or promote the death of the presidents of Russia, Vladimir Putin, and Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, will be allowed, as long as they do not describe the manner or place of the murder.
However, a day after this statement, the corporation explained that the change will be valid only for the troops that invaded Ukraine and not for the other 12 countries in Eastern Europe and the Caucasus, as previously reported.
After Meta's announcement, the Russian embassy in the United States described this decision as a new "aggressive and criminal" policy against their nation and expressed that "the company's actions are further evidence of the information war without rules that declared against our country".
In response to what happened, the Internet regulator in Russia, Roskomnadzor, reported this Friday that access to the Instagram social network in this country will be restricted. While the Russian Prosecutor General's Office asked a court to classify Meta as an extremist company.