Facebook owner Meta Platforms said Friday that a temporary change in its content policy, only for Ukraine, was needed to let users voice opposition to Russia's attack, as Russia opened a criminal case after the company said it would allow posts such as "death to the Russian invaders."

Russian prosecutors asked a court to designate the U.S. tech giant as an "extremist organisation," and the communications regulator said it would restrict access to Meta's Instagram starting March 14. The company said the decision would affect 80 million users in Russia.

"A criminal case has been initiated ... in connection with illegal calls for murder and violence against citizens of the Russian Federation by employees of the American company Meta, which owns the social networks Facebook and Instagram," Russia's Investigative Committee said.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/india-news/want-india-to-clearly-condemn-war-by-russia-says-belgiums-envoy-to-india-461492">Want India to clearly condemn ‘war by Russia’, says Belgium's envoy to India</a>

The committee reports directly to President Vladimir Putin. It was not immediately clear what the consequences of the criminal case might be.

Meta Global Affairs President Nick Clegg responded after the Russian government action with a tweeted statement saying that the company aimed to protect rights to speech as an expression of self-defense reacting to the invasion of Ukraine and that the policy only applied to Ukraine.

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Responding to reports that the Russian government is considering designating Meta as an extremist organization for its policies in support of speech: <a href="https://t.co/Y8sUbZDSML">pic.twitter.com/Y8sUbZDSML</a>
— Nick Clegg (@nickclegg) <a href="https://twitter.com/nickclegg/status/1502349805221126144?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 11, 2022</a></blockquote>
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"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 wrote.

"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," he added.

Two weeks into Russia's war in Ukraine, a Meta spokesperson said on Thursday the company had temporarily altered its rules for political speech, allowing posts such as "death to the Russian invaders," although it would not allow calls for violence against Russian civilians.

Meta said the temporary change aimed to allow for forms of political expression that would normally violate its rules.

Also read |<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/in-conflict-russia-violates-nuclear-safety-principles-in-ukraine-says-us-461477">&nbsp;In conflict, Russia violates nuclear safety principles in Ukraine, says US&nbsp;</a>

Its oversight board said on Friday that it had been briefed by the company on Ukraine-related policies and that context was important for content policies and enforcement.

Internal Meta emails previously seen by Reuters said the temporary policy changes on calls for violence to Russian soldiers had applied to the markets of: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, and Ukraine.

A Meta spokesperson declined to provide comment other than Clegg's statement.

The emails seen by Reuters also showed the U.S. company had temporarily allowed posts that call for the death of Putin or Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

"We hope it is not true because if it is true then it will mean that there will have to be the most decisive measures to end the activities of this company," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

INFORMATION WARS

Russia has for more than a year been striving to curb the influence of U.S. tech giants including Alphabet Inc's Google and Twitter, repeatedly fining them for allowing what it deems to be illegal content.

But the invasion of Ukraine - met by a storm of international condemnation and unprecedented sanctions - has sharply raised the stakes in the information war.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/white-house-briefs-tiktokers-on-ukraine-as-information-war-against-russia-heats-up-461466">White House briefs TikTokers on Ukraine as information war against Russia heats up</a>

Social media provide an opportunity for dissent against Putin's line - loyally followed by the tightly controlled state media - that Moscow was forced to launch its "special military operation" to defend Russian-speakers in Ukraine against genocide and to demilitarise and "denazify" the country.

The Investigative Committee said the Facebook move could violate articles of the Russian criminal law against public calls for extremist activities.

"Such actions of the (Meta) company's management not only form an idea that terrorist activity is permissible, but are aimed at inciting hatred and enmity towards the citizens of the Russian Federation," the state prosecutor's office said.

It said it had applied to a court to recognise Meta as an extremist organisation and prohibit its activities in Russia.

Meta's other services also are popular in Russia. Facebook last year had an estimated 7.5 million users and WhatsApp 67 million, according to researcher Insider Intelligence.

Last week, Russia said it was banning Facebook in the country in response to what it said were restrictions of access to Russian media on the platform.

Watch |&nbsp;Gravitas: Will Russia launch a chemical attack on Ukraine?

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/gravitas-will-russia-launch-a-chemical-attack-on-ukraine-461097/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

Instagram is a favoured tool of jailed Putin opponent Alexei Navalny, who used it in a message posted via his lawyers and supporters on Friday to call for Russians to join protests against the Ukraine war and "mad maniac Putin" this weekend.

WhatsApp will not be affected by the legal moves, Russia's RIA news agency cited a source as saying, as the messaging app is considered a means of communication not a way to post information.

Facebook owner Meta Platforms said Friday that a temporary change in its content policy, only for Ukraine, was needed to let users voice opposition to Russia's attack, as Russia opened a criminal case after the company said it would allow posts such as "death to the Russian invaders.

Facebook owner Meta Platforms said Friday that a temporary change in its content policy, only for Ukraine, was needed to let users voice opposition to Russia's attack, as Russia opened a criminal case after the company said it would allow posts such as "death to the Russian invaders." Russian prosecutors asked a court to designate the U.S. tech giant as an "extremist organisation," and the communications regulator said it would restrict access to Meta's Instagram starting March 14. The company said the decision would affect 80 million users in Russia. "A criminal case has been initiated ... in connection with illegal calls for murder and violence against citizens of the Russian Federation by employees of the American company Meta, which owns the social networks Facebook and Instagram," Russia's Investigative Committee said. Also read | Want India to clearly condemn ‘war by Russia’, says Belgium's envoy to India The committee reports directly to President Vladimir Putin. It was not immediately clear what the consequences of the criminal case might be. Meta Global Affairs President Nick Clegg responded after the Russian government action with a tweeted statement saying that the company aimed to protect rights to speech as an expression of self-defense reacting to the invasion of Ukraine and that the policy only applied to Ukraine. Responding to reports that the Russian government is considering designating Meta as an extremist organization for its policies in support of speech: pic.twitter.com/Y8sUbZDSML — Nick Clegg (@nickclegg) March 11, 2022 × "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 wrote. "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," he added. Two weeks into Russia's war in Ukraine, a Meta spokesperson said on Thursday the company had temporarily altered its rules for political speech, allowing posts such as "death to the Russian invaders," although it would not allow calls for violence against Russian civilians. Meta said the temporary change aimed to allow for forms of political expression that would normally violate its rules. Also read | In conflict, Russia violates nuclear safety principles in Ukraine, says US Its oversight board said on Friday that it had been briefed by the company on Ukraine-related policies and that context was important for content policies and enforcement. Internal Meta emails previously seen by Reuters said the temporary policy changes on calls for violence to Russian soldiers had applied to the markets of: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, and Ukraine. A Meta spokesperson declined to provide comment other than Clegg's statement. The emails seen by Reuters also showed the U.S. company had temporarily allowed posts that call for the death of Putin or Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. "We hope it is not true because if it is true then it will mean that there will have to be the most decisive measures to end the activities of this company," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. INFORMATION WARS Russia has for more than a year been striving to curb the influence of U.S. tech giants including Alphabet Inc's Google and Twitter, repeatedly fining them for allowing what it deems to be illegal content. But the invasion of Ukraine - met by a storm of international condemnation and unprecedented sanctions - has sharply raised the stakes in the information war. Also read | White House briefs TikTokers on Ukraine as information war against Russia heats up Social media provide an opportunity for dissent against Putin's line - loyally followed by the tightly controlled state media - that Moscow was forced to launch its "special military operation" to defend Russian-speakers in Ukraine against genocide and to demilitarise and "denazify" the country. The Investigative Committee said the Facebook move could violate articles of the Russian criminal law against public calls for extremist activities. "Such actions of the (Meta) company's management not only form an idea that terrorist activity is permissible, but are aimed at inciting hatred and enmity towards the citizens of the Russian Federation," the state prosecutor's office said. It said it had applied to a court to recognise Meta as an extremist organisation and prohibit its activities in Russia. Meta's other services also are popular in Russia. Facebook last year had an estimated 7.5 million users and WhatsApp 67 million, according to researcher Insider Intelligence. Last week, Russia said it was banning Facebook in the country in response to what it said were restrictions of access to Russian media on the platform. Watch | Gravitas: Will Russia launch a chemical attack on Ukraine? Instagram is a favoured tool of jailed Putin opponent Alexei Navalny, who used it in a message posted via his lawyers and supporters on Friday to call for Russians to join protests against the Ukraine war and "mad maniac Putin" this weekend. WhatsApp will not be affected by the legal moves, Russia's RIA news agency cited a source as saying, as the messaging app is considered a means of communication not a way to post information.

Meta defends policy on calls for violence that angered Russia

According to reports, social media giant Facebook has exempted high profile VIPs from its rules in a new quality control move.

The programme&nbsp;is reportedly called "cross-check" or "XCheck". The Wall Street Journal report said the policy protests celebrities even though the social media company claims to apply rules equally to everyone.

Andy Stone, Facebook spokesman in a series of tweets said: "The WSJ piece repeatedly cites Facebook's own documents pointing to the need for changes that are in fact already underway at the company."

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But since 2019, when we, ourselves, promoted that the company would take this approach to politicians’ speech, there have been literally hundreds of news stories critical of our approach.
— Andy Stone (@andymstone) <a href="https://twitter.com/andymstone/status/1437463051985473538?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 13, 2021</a></blockquote>
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"We have new teams, new resources and an overhaul of the process that is an existing work-stream at Facebook," Stone added.&nbsp; 
Stone said there have been "literally hundreds of news stories critical of our approach" while conceding&nbsp;that Facebook's own analysis had come to the conclusion improvements need&nbsp;to be made.

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The Journal’s reporting also suggests we were not clear about the ability of politicians to speak freely on the platform -- suggesting this somehow a secret protection.
— Andy Stone (@andymstone) <a href="https://twitter.com/andymstone/status/1437462907202281472?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 13, 2021</a></blockquote>
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"There aren't two systems of justice; it's an attempted safeguard against mistakes," Stone said in the tweet, adding: "We know our enforcement is not perfect and there are tradeoffs between speed and accuracy."

The WSJ report said XCheck grew to include at least 5.8 million users last year.&nbsp;Facebook had claimed earlier that it does not protect profiles, pages or content from being removed while adding that it "is simply done to make sure our decision is correct."

(With inputs from Agencies)

According to reports, social media giant Facebook has exempted high profile VIPs from its rules in a new quality control move. The programme is reportedly called "cross-check" or "XCheck".

According to reports, social media giant Facebook has exempted high profile VIPs from its rules in a new quality control move. The programme is reportedly called "cross-check" or "XCheck". The Wall Street Journal report said the policy protests celebrities even though the social media company claims to apply rules equally to everyone. Andy Stone, Facebook spokesman in a series of tweets said: "The WSJ piece repeatedly cites Facebook's own documents pointing to the need for changes that are in fact already underway at the company." But since 2019, when we, ourselves, promoted that the company would take this approach to politicians’ speech, there have been literally hundreds of news stories critical of our approach. — Andy Stone (@andymstone) September 13, 2021 × "We have new teams, new resources and an overhaul of the process that is an existing work-stream at Facebook," Stone added. Stone said there have been "literally hundreds of news stories critical of our approach" while conceding that Facebook's own analysis had come to the conclusion improvements need to be made. The Journal’s reporting also suggests we were not clear about the ability of politicians to speak freely on the platform -- suggesting this somehow a secret protection. — Andy Stone (@andymstone) September 13, 2021 × "There aren't two systems of justice; it's an attempted safeguard against mistakes," Stone said in the tweet, adding: "We know our enforcement is not perfect and there are tradeoffs between speed and accuracy." The WSJ report said XCheck grew to include at least 5.8 million users last year. Facebook had claimed earlier that it does not protect profiles, pages or content from being removed while adding that it "is simply done to make sure our decision is correct." (With inputs from Agencies)

Facebook protects elite users from its own rules: Report

Israel&#39;s minister of internal security on Saturday accused Facebook and its founder, Mark Zuckerberg, of not doing enough to prevent incitement against Israel and said the social network was &quot;sabotaging&quot; Israeli police work. 
 
Israel has in the past said Facebook is used to encourage attacks and the government is drafting legislation to enable it to order Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and other social media to remove online postings it deems incite terrorism. 
 
But the comments made by Gilad Erdan, a cabinet minister in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu&#39;s Right-wing coalition that oversees law enforcement, were particularly biting. 
 
He said Zuckerberg was responsible for Facebook policy and called on &quot;the citizens of Israel to flood him in every possible place with the demand to monitor the platform he established and from which he earns billions&quot;. 
 
A spokesman for Facebook in Israel said the company was not commenting on the minister&#39;s assertions. 
 
During an interview on Channel 2 television, Erdan said, &quot;Facebook today, which brought an amazing, positive revolution to the world, sadly, we see this since the rise of Daesh (Islamic State) and the wave of terror, it has simply become a monster.&quot; 
 
&quot;Facebook today sabotages, it should be known, sabotages the work of the Israeli police, because when the Israeli police approach them, and it is regarding a resident of Judea and Samaria, Facebook does not cooperate,&quot; he said, referring to the area of the West Bank. 
 
&quot;It also sets a very high bar for removing inciteful content and posts,&quot; Erdan said. 
 
Since October, Palestinians have killed 34 Israelis and two visiting US citizens in a wave of street attacks, mostly stabbings. Israeli forces have shot dead at least 201 Palestinians, 137 of whom Israel has said were assailants. Others were killed in clashes and protests. 
 
Palestinian leaders say assailants have acted out of desperation over the collapse of peace talks in 2014 and Israeli settlement expansion in occupied territory that Palestinians seek for an independent state. Most countries view the settlements as illegal. Israel disputes this. 
 
Israel says incitement in the Palestinian media and personal problems at home have been important factors that have spurred assailants, often teenagers, to launch attacks. 
 
Tensions over Jewish access to a contested Jerusalem holy site, revered by Muslims as Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) and Jews as Temple Mount, have also fuelled the violence. 
 
(Reuters)

Gilad Erdam blamed Mark Zuckerberg for Facebook policy and called on Israeli citizens to demand monitoring of the social network

Israel's minister of internal security on Saturday accused Facebook and its founder, Mark Zuckerberg, of not doing enough to prevent incitement against Israel and said the social network was "sabotaging" Israeli police work. Israel has in the past said Facebook is used to encourage attacks and the government is drafting legislation to enable it to order Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and other social media to remove online postings it deems incite terrorism. But the comments made by Gilad Erdan, a cabinet minister in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Right-wing coalition that oversees law enforcement, were particularly biting. He said Zuckerberg was responsible for Facebook policy and called on "the citizens of Israel to flood him in every possible place with the demand to monitor the platform he established and from which he earns billions". A spokesman for Facebook in Israel said the company was not commenting on the minister's assertions. During an interview on Channel 2 television, Erdan said, "Facebook today, which brought an amazing, positive revolution to the world, sadly, we see this since the rise of Daesh (Islamic State) and the wave of terror, it has simply become a monster." "Facebook today sabotages, it should be known, sabotages the work of the Israeli police, because when the Israeli police approach them, and it is regarding a resident of Judea and Samaria, Facebook does not cooperate," he said, referring to the area of the West Bank. "It also sets a very high bar for removing inciteful content and posts," Erdan said. Since October, Palestinians have killed 34 Israelis and two visiting US citizens in a wave of street attacks, mostly stabbings. Israeli forces have shot dead at least 201 Palestinians, 137 of whom Israel has said were assailants. Others were killed in clashes and protests. Palestinian leaders say assailants have acted out of desperation over the collapse of peace talks in 2014 and Israeli settlement expansion in occupied territory that Palestinians seek for an independent state. Most countries view the settlements as illegal. Israel disputes this. Israel says incitement in the Palestinian media and personal problems at home have been important factors that have spurred assailants, often teenagers, to launch attacks. Tensions over Jewish access to a contested Jerusalem holy site, revered by Muslims as Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) and Jews as Temple Mount, have also fuelled the violence. (Reuters)

Israel minister terms Facebook 'monster' for hindering security

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Meta defends policy on calls for violence that angered Russia

Facebook protects elite users from its own rules: Report

Israel minister terms Facebook 'monster' for hindering security