LOS ANGELES (KNX) — As the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues, hundreds of thousands of people seeking information have been thwarted by the Russian government as it seeks to shape the messages of the media and block access to internet and social media platforms.
In response to the country blocking access to Facebook, Meta said it would continue to do everything possible to restore services — which has led to reports that the Russian government will designate the company as “an extremist organization for its policies in support of speech.” Friday, the company shared its response, saying that will not stop them from protecting rights to speech.
“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,” Nick Clegg, Meta president of global affairs, said in a statement, making it clear that the policy would only be applied within the country of Ukraine.
“We have no quarrel with the Russian people. There is no change at all in our policies on hate speech as far as the Russian people are concerned. We will not tolerate Russophobia or any kind of discrimination, harassment or violence toward Russians on our platform.”
Clegg said the policy is not permanent and will be assessed continuously as the war in Ukraine unfolds.
Days after the invasion of Russia began, Clegg said Ukrainians reached out to Meta to ask that access to Facebook be removed in Russian. However, Clegg tweeted, “people in Russia are using [Facebook] and [Instagram] to protest and organize against the war and as a source of independent information, and therefore denying access would silence important expression at a crucial time.”