Russia opens criminal case against Meta over violent speech policy change

Russia's Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case against Facebook parent company Meta Platforms accusing the company's employees of "illegal calls for murder and violence" against Russian citizens, according to a statement the committee published on Friday.

Notably, Meta, the parent company of social networks Facebook and Instagram, is planning to allow the publication of calls for violence against Russians in response to the invasion of Ukraine, media reports said on Friday.

The Investigative Committee's statement said, citing the policy change, "A criminal case has been initiated in the Main Investigation Department of the Russian Investigative Committee 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."

"These actions contain signs of crimes under Articles 280 and 205.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - public calls for extremist activities; assistance to terrorist activities," the statement reads, reported CNN.

Earlier, Meta spokesperson, Andy Stone in a statement, 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."

The US media giant is going to allow posts that call for death to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in a number of countries, including Russia, Ukraine and Poland, reported Sputnik.

This decision from Meta comes a few days after Russia blocked access to Facebook and other social media platforms, saying that it had discriminated against Russian media and information resources.

Russia launched a "military operation" in Ukraine on February 24, which it claimed was a response to calls from the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk for protection against attacks by Ukrainian troops.

Following the announcement of military operation, many multinational companies have started imposing sanctions on Russia in a bid to target its economy and to show solidarity with the people of Ukraine.

( With inputs from ANI )