Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation addressed Meta about blocking Ukrainian war content

The Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine appealed to Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, to block posts about the actions of the Russian army in Ukraine.

The open letter was published on the website of the Ministry of Digital Transformation.

The government said that Ukrainian bloggers, journalists, and activists covering the war in Ukraine often face blocking of content on Facebook and Instagram. All this time, the Ministry of Digital Transformation team helps to unblock posts and accounts, but this does not solve the problem globally.

Posts about the war are blocked due to automatic algorithms, poor moderation, and excessive activity of russian bots complaining about the posts.

The head of the Ministry of Digital Transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, asks Meta to open the rules for Ukrainian content moderation to Ukrainian users and to share a list of prohibited words that the system perceives as unacceptable. It will prevent mass blocking.

"Social networks are created to tell the truth. But we can't do it enough when social media policies are only made for peacetime. We understand Meta's hate speech policy but find it unfair to block accounts and hide posts. We know that Ukraine will win. But with your help, it will happen much faster," writes Fedorov.