The supervisory board of Facebook on Thursday issued its first round of decisions, in which it overturned several decisions of the company to remove posts due to violations of policies on hate speech, violence and other issues.
The first decisions ever, which he says Facebook will comply with, come in the run-up to a much more consequential decision the board will make in the coming weeks: Or Facebook’s decision to oust former President Donald Trump’s account in the aftermath of the riots on January 6 in Washington.
The board, a group of 20 journalists, politicians and judges from around the world, was formed last year and has the task of dealing with the social media giant on the most difficult content issues. It claims total independence from Facebook, and Facebook has said that the decisions it makes will be binding.
Thursday’s rulings are a sign that the newly formed ‘Supreme Court’ of the social media giant intends to stray on the side of freedom of speech.
“For all board members, you start with the supremacy of freedom of speech,” Alan Rusbridger, one of the 20 board members and former editor-in-chief of The Guardian, said in an interview before the decisions were made public. “Then you look at each case and say, what is the reason in this particular case why freedom of speech should be restricted?”
Monika Bickert, Facebook’s vice president of content policy, said on Thursday that the company “will implement these binding decisions in accordance with the regulations and has already restored the content in three of the cases as instructed by the supervisory board.”
The first decisions of the board of directors relate to five cases in which Facebook removed posts due to the violation of its policy. And in four of the five cases reviewed, the council voted to reverse Facebook’s original decisions. The council also called on Facebook to give users more clarity on its policies and how it intends to implement them.
Two of these statements relate to Facebook’s policy on hate speech, one of which was reversed and the other one confirmed.
In the first case, Facebook deleted a message from a user in Myanmar that appears to be Muslim as psychologically inferior. While the company decides that the position violates its policy, the board has ruled that the terms used are “not derogatory or violent.”
“While the message may be considered pejorative or offensive to Muslims, it did not advocate hatred or inflict any form of imminent harm,” the council wrote.
In the second case, a user posted a term to describe Azerbaijaniis who interpreted Facebook as a scam. The board also ruled that “the context in which the term was used makes it clear that it was intended to dehumanize the target”, and upheld Facebook’s decision.
The third case touched on nudity: the board overturned Facebook’s decision to remove an Instagram post from a user in Brazil to raise awareness about breast cancer. The post contained five photos showing women’s nipples, which the council declared admissible in light of Facebook’s own exception to ‘breast cancer awareness’ policy.
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The fourth case concerns violence: one user quoted Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propagandist who is on Facebook’s list of ‘dangerous individuals’. Facebook policy states that quotes attributed to such individuals are an expression of support for that individual, unless otherwise stated. However, the council said the quote “does not support the ideology of the Nazi party or the acts of hatred and violence.”
The fifth and final case concerns incorrect information: Facebook deleted a message from a user in France who falsely claimed that a drug for Covid-19 existed, and criticized the French government for not making it available. Facebook said the message could lead people to ignore health counseling or to try self-medication.
The council, taking into account the context of the user’s post, argued that the user’s ” opposes a government policy aimed at changing the policy ”, and that his post will not lead people to self-medicine, as the combination of those medicines is not available. without prescription.
