DISINFO: Facebook allows Azov Nazi content to be published freely
SUMMARY
The social networking platform "Facebook" allowed the dissemination of everything related to the Ukrainian Nazi battalions and groups, including the terrorists "Azov" and "Aidar".
RESPONSE
Disinformation narrative related to the ongoing aggression on Ukraine, which is consistent with the pro-Kremlin narrative that Russia is fighting “Nazi Ukraine”, a myth of that has been a cornerstone of Russian disinformation about the country since the very beginning of the 2013-14 Euromaidan protests.
While Facebook [META] has indeed backtracked a ban it placed on users praising the Azov Battalion, Facebook will “allow praise of the Azov Battalion when explicitly and exclusively praising their role in defending Ukraine OR their role as part of the Ukraine’s National Guard.”
According to a report by The Intercept, Azov still can’t use Facebook platforms for recruiting purposes or for publishing its own statements and that the regiment’s uniforms and banners will remain as banned hate symbol imagery, even while Azov soldiers may fight wearing and displaying them. The new policy notes that “any praise of violence” committed by the group is still forbidden.
See similar disinformation cases in our database that claims that Twitter sanctions against Russian media are a censorship act; or that Google and Facebook manipulate information to destroy Russia; or that Facebook is a project of the Soros Foundation financed by NSA, or that Facebook violates freedom of speech by blocking Sputnik Arabic; or that The Ukrainian regime kills the opposition with the help of neo-Nazis.