Facebook has banned threats to kill Russian President Putin due to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

• It is forbidden to call for the assassination of Russian President Vladimir Putin or other heads of state on Meta Platforms.
• Meta is the parent company of social media giants Facebook and Instagram.
• The hate speech policy of the platform has been temporarily relaxed to allow posts by Ukrainian users threatening the Russian military during its invasion of the country.

Facebook, the parent company of Instagram, made it clear on Monday that users are not allowed to post content advocating for the assassination of Russian President Vladimir Putin or other heads of state.

Meta has clarified that its previously reported temporary easing of its hate speech policy only applies to allowing posts by users in Ukraine making threats to the attacking forces, but only in the context of speech regarding the Russian military invasion of Ukraine.

Reuters reported that Meta had changed its hate speech policy in Russia, Ukraine, and Poland to allow for death threats against Putin and Lukashenko due to the ongoing invasion.

Reuters reported on Thursday that Facebook was permitting calls for violence against Russian soldiers in several countries, including those in Eastern Europe, the Baltics, and western Asia.

On Friday, Russia launched a criminal investigation into Meta due to its updated hate speech policy, and subsequently restricted users' access to Instagram. Following the invasion, Facebook imposed restrictions on government-affiliated media outlets, which led to Russia blocking the platform.

In a recent internal post, Meta President of Global Affairs Nick Clegg clarified that the company's guidance is not meant to condone violence against all Russians.

"We do not allow calls to assassinate a head of state," Clegg stated in his post, which was initially reported by Bloomberg on Sunday.

Meta confirmed the contents of Clegg's post to CNBC.

On Friday, Clegg tweeted about the reasoning behind the relaxation of Meta's hate speech policy.

He wrote that he wanted to be crystal clear: Our policies prioritize safeguarding individuals' right to express themselves through speech as a means of self-defense in response to their country being invaded by the military.

If we adhered to our standard content policies without modifications, we would be removing content from Ukrainians who are expressing their opposition and anger towards the invading military forces, which would be considered unacceptable.

We will only apply this policy in Ukraine and have no issue with the Russian people. Our policies on hate speech remain the same for the Russian people. We will not tolerate any form of discrimination, harassment or violence towards Russians on our platform.