Representational picture of Facebook. (Reuters)
The board mentioned it was “concerned” that Facebook had misplaced an essential coverage exemption for this time and that this might have led to different posts being wrongly taken down.
- Reuters
- Last Updated:July 09, 2021, 10:31 IST
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Facebook “misplaced” guidance on an important exemption to its rules on dangerous individuals and organisations for three years, the company’s independent oversight board said on Thursday. The board, which was created by the company to rule on a small slice of contentious content decisions, said it had overturned Facebook’s original removal of an Instagram post encouraging people to talk about the solitary confinement of Abdullah Ocalan, a founding member of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
It said the content should never have been removed, but it also said that after it selected the case, Facebook found a relevant piece of its internal rules had “inadvertently not transferred” to a brand new assessment system in 2018. This steering made an exception to Facebook’s guidelines, which prohibit help or reward of people or organisations it designates as harmful, to permit dialogue on the circumstances of confinement. Facebook has lengthy been below scrutiny over what’s allowed on its platforms and has been criticised by the board for an absence of transparency round its guidelines. The board mentioned it was “involved” that Facebook had lost an important policy exemption for this time and that this could have led to other posts being wrongly taken down.
It said the guidance, which was not shared with Facebook’s policy team, was developed in 2017 partly in response to concerns about the conditions of Ocalan’s imprisonment. A company spokeswoman declined to answer Reuters questions about how the policy was lost. The board said Facebook was conducting a review of how it failed to transfer the guidance but said it was not “technically feasible” to find out what number of items of content material had been taken down whereas the steering was not accessible. Facebook had restored the content material earlier than the board’s choice. The board has advisable Facebook publish the outcomes of its assessment, together with descriptions of another misplaced insurance policies.
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