The metaoversight committee reached similar conclusions in its report on Tuesday. (representative)
New York:
Meta’s oversight board called on the company on Tuesday to end a blanket ban on the Arabic word “shaheed” (“martyr” in English) after a year-long review found the Facebook owner’s approach was “overbroad” and unnecessarily repressive The comment has millions of users.
The committee, which is funded by Meta but operates independently, said the social media giant should remove posts containing the word “shaheed” only if they were associated with clear signs of violence or separately violated other Meta rules.
The ruling comes after years of criticism over the company’s handling of content involving the Middle East, including a 2021 study commissioned by Meta itself that found the company’s practices had “a negative impact on Palestinian and other Arabic-speaking users of its services.” Adverse human rights impacts”.
Those criticisms have escalated since hostilities broke out between Israel and Hamas in October. Human rights groups have accused Meta of suppressing pro-Palestinian content on Facebook and Instagram amid Hamas’ deadly attacks on Israel on October 7 that killed tens of thousands of people in the Gaza Strip.
The Meta Oversight Board reached a similar conclusion in a report on Tuesday, finding that Meta’s rules on “shaheed” failed to account for the word’s many meanings and led to the removal of content that was not intended to glorify violence.
Oversight Board co-chair Helle Thorning-Schmidt said in a statement: “Meta has been operating under the assumption that censorship can and will improve safety, but the evidence shows that censorship can marginalize entire populations and simply not Improve safety.”
Meta is currently removing all posts that use “shaheed” to refer to people on a list of “dangerous organizations and individuals,” which includes members of Islamist groups, drug cartels and white supremacist groups.
According to the board’s report, the company said the term was a compliment to those entities and was therefore prohibited.
Hamas is one of the groups designated by the company as a “dangerous group.”
Meta consulted with the board on the topic last year after it began reevaluating the policy in 2020, but was unable to reach consensus internally, the board said. It revealed in the request that “shaheed” has had more content removed from its platform than any other word or phrase.
A Meta spokesperson said in a statement that the company will review the board’s feedback and respond within 60 days.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
