Hey, I thought that all of the cool kids did not make death threats on Facebook, you know, it is something that school yard bullies would do, don’t you think? Even before the days of computers, every day at my school in inner Melbourne I was in fear for my life. Later, as a teacher, in the black board jungle, I was in fear for my life too. So, we all must know how Vlad Putin now feels. Who would not want to hide from this cruel world of Facebook with thousands of nuclear weapons? He must be truly terrified.
“Facebook will allow posts calling for Vladimir Putin’s death in a temporary change to its hate speech policy, it was reported last night.
Instagram and Facebook users in some countries will be allowed to call for violence against Russian soldiers and civilians in the context of the Ukrainian invasion, according to internal emails seen by Reuters.
Meta, which runs the social media sites, told content moderators that posts calling for the death of the Russian President and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko will also be allowed.
The temporary policy change applied to Ukraine, Russia, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania.
Posts that call for Mr Putin’s or Mr Lukashenko’s death will only be removed if they target other individuals or if there are indications the threat is credible.
Facebook said calls for violence against prisoners of war will not be allowed.
Several social media companies previously announced new content restrictions after the Ukraine invasion including blocking Russia state media RT and Sputnik in Europe.”
How exactly is a private individual to make a credible threat in any case, especially from their mom’s basement computer?