Meta (ex-Facebook) violated its moderation rules by momentarily allowing demands for Vladimir Putin's death from specific nations, including Ukraine. Rather than case-by-case moderation, some sites, such as TikTok, have taken harsher measures, such as suspending the publishing of new material in Russia.
Propaganda pictures, shortened or falsified photos, aggressive messages... In terms of moderation, the war in Ukraine has forced social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to make difficult decisions. Should messages from Ukrainian users be permitted, even if they are aggressive toward Russians? And how can Russian Internet users be secure now that a new Moscow legislation threatens authors of "false news" against the army with up to fifteen years in prison?
From the Syrian civil war through the strikes in France, including the Capitol attack in early 2021, each violent incident alerts the platforms. Faced with the enormity of the task, social media platforms employ algorithms and human moderators to delete information that violates their corporate regulations. The overarching goal is not to seem as an arbitrator of free expression, but rather to study the contents of the renowned "grey" zone in light of the cultural background. These can be harmful, but they are not always unlawful.
Death calls against Putin
However, in the context of the Ukrainian crisis, several platforms have abandoned this case-by-case approach in favour of radical, or at least novel, viewpoints. For example, Meta (ex-Facebook) will temporarily allow violent posts directed towards Russian servicemen. Even murder threats against Vladimir Putin and his Belarussian buddy, Alexander Lukashenko, will not be erased, according to Reuters, citing email exchanges between platform moderators. "As a result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, we are being lenient toward forms of political expression that would typically violate our rules on violent speech," Meta stated in a statement.
To be sure, this "reward" is only available to users in Ukraine, Russia, and a few other Eastern European and Caucasus nations. Above all, "credible demands for violence against Russian residents" will remain mild. This is, however, a somewhat uncommon situation. The most recent case dates back to June 2021, when the network enabled messages from Iranian opponents asking for the execution of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for two weeks.
Russia, however, reacted quickly on Friday by blocking access to Instagram. The Russian prosecutor's office has even initiated legal action against the tech giant, requesting that it be designated as a "extremist" group, which might result in a ban on all of its activity in Russia. Knowing that Facebook has been inaccessible in Russia since March 4, when Moscow blocked it in response to Meta's decision not to distribute the programming of the Russian official station RT.
Meta isn't an isolated incident. Following the Russian law of March 4 restricting any independent information or freely stated opinion on the invasion in Ukraine, TikTok, for its part, banned live video broadcasting (livestreaming) in the nation, as well as the posting of new videos, on March 6. An unprecedented decision for a social network built on flow logic, which might easily turn it into an empty shell...
Twitter has also taken a significant step forward by establishing a version on Tor, the primary gateway to the "anonymous" Web. While the original version was restricted in Russia by the regulator, this Twitter extension ending in.onion (rather than.com) permits it to stay accessible.
These unexpected moves can be explained by both international pressure on Russia and Moscow's clampdown on media and digital technologies. A nasty awakening for platforms that, like Meta, have established a worldwide footprint outside of China. Russia's increasing isolation promotes the idea of the "splinternet," or the formation of a "balkanized" and fragmented Web across many huge regional plates.