Facebook has reportedly changed its rules to allow open calls for violence against Russian soldiers. However, Facebook infamously censored then-President Donald Trump as he called for peace amid the Jan. 6 riot.
Today, Russian soldiers are public enemy No. 1, but who is next? “Facebook will allow some calls for violence against Russian invaders as the war in Ukraine drags on, creating an unusual exception to its long-standing hate speech rules that prohibit such language,” The Washington Post reported March 10. Facebook spokesman Andy Stone reportedly said, “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.” Facebook also reportedly mishandled chaos in Myanmar, after having discovered that certain individuals and organizations “committed or enabled serious human rights abuses in the country.”
The Post added further that “The exceptions will also allow users to call for the death of Russian President Vladimir Putin or Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in countries including Russia, Ukraine and Poland.”
Big Tech companies like Facebook infamously purged Trump as he called for peace amid the Capitol riot on Jan. 6 2021. Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg declared in a Facebook post that the block on Trump’s accounts on Facebook and Instagram would be extended indefinitely, as “We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great.”
At least one commentator realized the slippery slope of Facebook singling out when calls for political violence are deemed acceptable. The Daily Wire commentator Matt Walsh warned that Big Tech changing its rules to allow calls for violence against supposedly acceptable targets sets a dangerous precedent:
“I really think we should be talking more about the fact that the social media companies got together and decided that actually it's okay to call for violence as long as it's against Russians. Our Big Tech overlords are now literally deciding who deserves to live and die.”
The fact Facebook is allowing a war to influence its policies has grim parallels with doctors condoning mass public protests without social distancing amid the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in mid-2020. Facebook has a history of specifically racial double-standards.
The Post criticized Facebook for past moderation practices in a Nov. 21 blog, “Facebook’s race-blind practices around hate speech came at the expense of Black users, new documents show.” Deep into the article, however, The Post revealed that liberal groups successfully bullied Facebook into explicitly favoring black users, because anti-white hatred is apparently less harmful. Facebook Vice President for Global Public Policy Joel Kaplan and other executives reportedly agreed upon “programming the algorithms to stop automatically taking down content directed at White people, Americans and men,” The Post summarized.
Conservatism is under attack. Contact Facebook headquarters at (650) 308-7300 and demand that the platform provide clarity on “hate speech”: Today, hate speech means anything liberals don’t like. Silencing those you disagree with is dangerous. If companies can’t tell users clearly what it is, then they shouldn’t try to regulate it. If you have noticed bias or have been censored by Facebook, contact us at the Media Research Center contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
