Lithuanian govt in talks with Meta to prevent Facebook from deleting pro-Ukraine posts

VILNIUS - The Office of the Lithuanian Government says it's in talks with Meta, the Facebook owner, regarding changes to this platform's moderation to prevent pro-Ukraine posts from being deleted.

"The Office of the Government has been closely monitoring the situation on Facebook, especially recently, and has seen users' complaints about pro-Ukraine posts being allegedly unjustly deleted and their authors blocked," Government Chancellor Giedre Balcytyte said in a statement on Wednesday.

"We are in contact with Meta representatives and our goal is not only to escalate specific examples, but also to find systemic solutions to prevent such situations from recurring," the chancellor said.

A team from Debunk.org, a disinformation analysis center, is starting to collect examples of Meta's platforms blocking messages about Russia's war in Ukraine, and this is expected to help identify not only specific cases but also the overall scale of the problem.

"This information could provide a strong argument both in discussions with Meta about changes to moderation on Facebook, and also to raise the matter at the European Commission level," Balcytyte said.

Viktoras Dauksas, CEO of Debunk.org, points out that major social media platforms use both artificial intelligence algorithms and content moderators, but the algorithms work very poorly in the Lithuanian language, and the number of moderators dedicated to Lithuania is small.