Facebook Restores Disputed Posts After its Oversight Board Issues First Decisions
upstart writes in with an IRC submission for TheMightyBuzzard:
Facebook restores disputed posts after its Oversight Board issues first decisions:
In its first set of decisions, Facebook's Oversight Board has overturned most of the company's actions on user posts previously removed from the platform for violating the social network's standards. In 4 of the 5 cases announced Thursday - which dealt with ethnic hate speech, nudity and COVID-19 misinformation - the board decided to restore the posts.
The board's decisions are binding and Facebook will have seven days to restore content according to the board's verdicts. The company has 30 days to respond to any of the board's policy recommendations.
[...] The first set of verdicts provided insight into the decision process of the 20-member board, which is made up of legal experts, journalists and human rights advocates. The published decisions included frequent references to international human rights standards on free speech and suggested that board members favor free expression except in cases that could cause harm.
The five cases - which Facebook will use as precedents to decide on similar cases - included a decision to remove a post that pejoratively implied Muslims were inferior, a breast cancer awareness post that depicted female nipples, a post that allegedly quoted a German Nazi leader and a post that falsely claimed a cure for COVID-19 exists.
Facebook's Vice President of Content Policy Monika Bickert said the company will "take to heart" the board's suggestions. "Their recommendations will have a lasting impact on how we structure our policies," she said.
The board upheld just one of Facebook's decisions, which removed a Russian-language post that used an ethnic slur against Azerbaijanis.
Well, that's interesting.
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