UN condemns Facebook owner Meta for allowing 'hate speech' against Russians

The United Nations (UN) on Friday, March 11, denounced Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta Platforms for allowing hateful remarks and calls for violence against the Russian military in some regions. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said that the international body does not condone such calls coming from either side in the Russia-Ukraine war. 

During a press conference on March 11, Dujarric said, “I can tell you, from our standpoint, we stand clearly against all hate speech, all calls for violence.  That kind of language is just unacceptable, from whichever quarter it comes from.”

After Meta tweaked its rules to allow hateful content against certain Russians in specific countries as Moscow’s forces continued their invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin has repeatedly slammed the move. However, Meta’s President for Global Affairs and former British Deputy PM Nick Clegg said in a statement that the main goal of the platform was to enable Ukrainians to vent their anger over Russia’s military aggression. He also described the move as a “temporary” measure. 

Following Meta’s massive measure against Russia, Moscow announced it will block Instagram from March 14. The policy of allowing calls for violence against the Russian military, Clegg stated, would be applied only “in Ukraine itself” to express “fury”. They would also be allowed to post about violence against Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

“I want to be crystal clear: Our policies are focused on protecting people's rights to speech as an expression of self-defense in reaction to a military invasion of their country,” Clegg said

“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,” he added. Earlier, Russian state media RT reported that the Prosecutor General of Russia has asked a court to formally designate Meta Platforms, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, as an extremist organisation.

Russia demands US hold Meta accountable

Meanwhile, The Russian Embassy in the US has demanded that Washington hold Meta accountable for allowing extremist content against the Russian military. This came after the social media giant allowed calls for violence against Russians.

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