The board has been summoned Facebook (FB)A Supreme Court version, on Thursday, announced that it was overturning Facebook’s decisions in four of the five cases. The cases dealt with issues such as hate speech, nudity and misinformation about Covid.
Facebook’s Board of Trustees aims to create a new way for users to appeal decisions about content on both Facebook and Instagram, given previous criticisms of the company’s handling of hate speech, violent extremism and graphic material. The 20-member board consists of a former prime minister, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and the former editor-in-chief of The Guardian. Facebook says its decisions are final and binding.
All five cases involved the deletion of posts by Facebook for breaking the rules. In one case, Facebook deleted a message from a Myanmar user who shared two photos of a Syrian toddler of Kurdish ethnicity who drowned while trying to reach Europe in 2015. The text accompanying the photo said, according to the sign’s description, that “something was wrong “with Muslims (or Muslim men) psychologically or with their mindset. (Myanmar has faced international scrutiny over the persecution of Rohingya Muslims.)
Facebook has removed the post for its hate speech policy. The board found that while the post may be considered pejorative or offensive towards Muslims, it does not advocate hatred or willfully incite any form of imminent harm. As such, the board does not consider its removal necessary to protect the rights of others. , ”the board posted on its website explaining the decision.
Another case was about nudity. The board reversed Facebook’s removal of an Instagram post from a Brazilian user intended to raise awareness about breast cancer. “The post featured five photos showing women’s nipples, which the council declared admissible in light of Facebook’s own policy exception for ‘breast cancer awareness,'” the council said.
The first set of decisions precedes the board’s most scrupulous case yet: whether to allow former President Donald Trump to stay on Facebook.
Earlier this month, Facebook and its subsidiary Instagram banned the ex-president’s account for at least the remainder of his tenure and possibly “ indefinitely ” after a crowd of his supporters stormed the Capitol to protest the election results.
Last week, Facebook said it had referred the former president’s suspension to the independent council for review. The administration has 90 days from that referral to decide whether to enforce the Trump ban or not, but a spokesman for the administration said it expects to “act faster than that.”
The decisions announced Thursday suggest the board has no problem disagreeing with Facebook.