World B;log by humble servant. Ukraine Chronicles 908 A Moscow court on Monday banned Facebook and Instagram in Russia as extremist organizations, after the platforms, owned by US-tech giant Meta, allowed online hate speech against the country’s nationals. The judge had rejected a request by the company's lawyers to stop or delay the proceedings and Instagram to allow calls for violence against Russians Zuckerberg barred from Russia The Facebook mogul is among 29 US politicians, executives and media figures blacklisted by Moscow boosted harmful content for 6 months – report The problematic-content filter backfired, increasing the distribution of ‘misinformation’ Ukraine, Facebook declares some hate speech is OK What happened after Meta amended its policy to allow calls for violence and death against Russians in some countriesthMeta profits crash Facebook parent firm reports the slowest revenue growth since going public in 2012

Supposedly this won’t apply to Russian civilians – though wishing death upon President Vladimir Putin of Russia and Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus are reportedly also OK now – and the special rule will only be in effect in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, and Ukraine. So unlike a principle, which would apply to anyone, anywhere, these new carve-outs apply only against specific groups and in specific territories. Would Meta create this exception for, say, Syria, Iran, Iraq, or Libya to allow calls for violence against Americans? Of course not. How about in Yemen, against the Saudis or Emiratis mercilessly bombing and occupying parts of the country since 2015? Not a chance. But hating Russians? That’s not just allowed, it’s encouraged – one might even say expected – in the West that has already banned Russian music, literature, and even cats. Facebook and Instagram to allow calls for violence against Russians Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the reports were “hard to believe,” adding that, “We hope they won’t be true, as otherwise a most vigorous action will be required to stop the activities of this company.” His hopes were dashed, however, as Meta spokesman Andy Stone confirmed the reports as accurate. The Russian embassy in Washington has chided Meta, saying its users “did not give the owners of these platforms the right to determine the criteria of truth and pit nations against each other.” Well of course not – but Zuckerberg never asked the users. Just as Facebook never asked anyone about banning a sitting US president in January 2021, or censoring the iconic May 1945 photo of the Soviet flag over the Reichstag, or allowing praise of “Azov,” the notorious and openly neo-Nazi unit of the Ukrainian national guard. Along with other Silicon Valley companies, Meta eagerly bans, suppresses, or censors viewpoints that displease the US government. The White House and the State Department have basically admitted to this on multiple occasions. Washington technically can’t ban speech under the US constitution, but uses these supposedly private companies as proxies instead. It’s just a remarkable coincidence that Meta’s senior staff is openly sympathetic to the party currently in power – from Stone who previously worked for congressional Democrats, to Zuckerberg himself, who donated $400 million of his own money to help Joe Biden win in 2020. American Big Tech has been on a censorship spree of US dissidents for years. Now it’s expanding this practice to global affairs, using the conflict in Ukraine as a pretext to censor any narrative they disapprove of – with the only “principle” behind the practice apparently being the Leninist “who/whom.”