Meta promised not to take down content about the Azov Regiment – Ministry of Digital Transformation

The US company Meta, owner of social media platfoms Instagram and Facebook, promised not to take down content about the Azov Regiment. This was announced by the Minister of Digital Transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov.

An agreement has been reached with the company's global policy president, Nick Clegg, and moderation policy vice president, Monica Bickert, during a meeting in Davos.

According to the Minister, Meta will remove the Azov Regiment from their takedown policy. The Regiment's members will be allowed to have accounts on the Meta platforms, and Azov-related content posted by other users will no longer be deleted as long as it doesn't violate Meta guidelines.

"Hundreds of accounts of Ukrainian servicepeople, bloggers and activists have been unblocked. But still the takedowns of photos and videos about the Azov Regiment remained the most pressing topic. Thank you, Meta, for the balanced and important decision to amend the moderation policy regarding Ukraine. Thanks to this, millions of people in the world will know about the feat of the Mariupol defenders, and Russian propaganda will lose its argument for blaming Ukrainian heroes," Fedorov said.

As IMI reported, on August 1, 2022, the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine sent a letter to Meta regarding the takedowns of Ukrainian content on social media.

On August 9, 2022, Instagram deleted the page of the Association of the Azovstal Defenders' Families and several other accounts related to the Azov Regiment. After an appeal from the Ministry of Digital Affairs, the account was restored.

In September 2022, Facebook and Instagram blocked the pages of Azov Regiment's patronage service. The patronage service called on users to subscribe to their official Telegram channel "Angels of Azov" and to spread the information on social media.