Image Source: Visual China

BEIJING, March 11 (TMTPOST) — Russia opened a criminal investigation against social media giant Facebook’s parent company Meta (NASDAQ: FB) on Friday after it changed its hate speech rules to let users post death calls on Russian soldiers in the context of Russia-Ukraine war, Reuters reported.

The controversial policy changes on Facebook reportedly allow users to post content that calls for death to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko or Russian soldiers. However, calls for violence against civilians would continue to be banned. The policy changes apply to users in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia and Ukraine.

Russian prosecutors had asked a court on Friday to designate Meta as an extremist organization and ban its operations in Russia, according to a news report by Russian news media RIA. The Prosecutor General’s Office of Russia has accused Meta of breaking laws on “terrorist propaganda” and “inciting hatred.”

"We demand that the United States authorities stop the extremist activities of Meta and take measures to bring the perpetrators to justice. Users of Facebook and Instagram did not give the owners of these platforms the right to determine the criteria of truth and pit nations against each other,” the Russian Embassy in the United States commented on the policy changes on Twitter.

Russia restricted access to Facebook last week after the social media cracked down on Russian state-owned media. Meta announced previously that it will restrict access to Russian state media outlets RT and Sputnik on its platforms across the European Union. However, Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg Russia retaliated against Meta because the company refuse to stop placing fact-checks on posts from Russian state media.

Meta also owns several major social media platforms, such as Instagram and WhatsApp. Banning Meta will mean losing access to some of the biggest social media platforms across the globe.