Facebook is backtracking on a ban it placed on users praising the Azov Battalion, a far-right paramilitary force within the Ukrainian National Guard.
The Intercept
first reported the news.
Praise for the group, which is the armed wing of the country's white nationalist Azov movement, was banned in 2019 under Facebook's Dangerous Individuals and Organizations policy. The platform had
classified the group alongside others such as the Ku Klux Klan and Islamic State.
A
2016 report by the OHCHR found that Azov soldiers had raped and tortured civilians during the 2014 Russian invasion of Ukraine.