Meta Oversight Board urges the company to end the ban on the word “martyr”

2024-03-26 12:54:04
Meta’s oversight board on Tuesday called on the company to end its blanket ban on the Arabic word “martyr” after a year-long review concluded that the Facebook owner’s approach was “exaggerated” and unnecessarily blocked the speech of millions of users.
The council, which is funded by Meta but operates independently, said the social media giant should remove posts containing the word “martyr” only when they are linked to clear signs of violence or if they separately violate other Meta rules.
The decision comes after years of criticism of the company’s handling of content related to the Middle East, including in a 2021 study commissioned by Meta itself that found that its approach had a “negative human rights impact” for Palestinians and other language-speaking users of its services. Arabic.
Human rights groups accused Meta of blocking content supporting the Palestinians on Facebook and Instagram against the backdrop of the war in Gaza.
Meta’s oversight board reached similar conclusions in its report Tuesday, finding that Meta’s rules on the word “martyr” failed to take into account the diversity of meanings of the word and led to the removal of content not intended to praise acts of violence. “META was operating on the assumption that oversight could improve safety, but the evidence suggests that oversight can marginalize entire populations while not improving safety at all,” Helle Thorning-Schmidt, co-chair of the oversight board, said in a statement.
Meta is currently removing any posts that use the word “martyr” in reference to those on its list of “dangerous organizations and individuals,” which includes members of armed groups, drug gangs, and white supremacist organizations.
According to the report, the company says: “The word constitutes a compliment to those entities that ban it.”
The council said: “Mita sought advice on this topic last year, after beginning to re-evaluate the policy in 2020, but failed to reach consensus internally.” She revealed in her request that the word “martyr” is responsible for more content removal on its platforms than any other word or phrase.
A Meta spokesman said in a statement: “The company will review the oversight board’s assessment and will respond within 60 days.” (Reuters)
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