Meta Oversight Board objects to removing positive newspaper report on Taliban

Meta Platforms’s independent Oversight Plank said on Thursday night (Sep 15) that will Facebook should not took down a newspapers report about the Taliban that it considered positive, backing users’ freedom of expression plus saying the tech company relied too heavily on automatic moderation.

Meta found the post on the Taliban announcing that universities and colleges in Afghanistan for women plus girls would reopen in March violated Facebook’s policies because it “praised” entities considered to “engage in serious offline harms”.

The company restricted the newspaper’s access to certain Facebook features after taking over the post.

The newspaper appealed the decision after which the post was referred to a special moderation queue, unfortunately he never reviewed, according to the Oversight Board.

The Oversight Board said Meta’s choice to remove the publish was inconsistent along with Facebook’s policies as they allow reporting on such organizations, and the company reversed the decision after the table selected the case.

“The Board found that Meta should better protect users’ freedom of manifestation when it comes to reporting upon terrorist regimes, inch the Oversight Plank said.

“By using automated systems to remove content, Press Matching Service banking institutions can amplify the particular impact of wrong decisions by individual human reviewers, ” it added.

Meta’s Oversight Board, which includes academics, rights experts and lawyers, was created by the company to rule on the small slice of thorny content moderation appeals, but it can also advise on site plans.