Controversy over the word “martyr” on “Facebook”… The Oversight Board of “Meta” takes action!

According to Reuters, the Oversight Board of Meta on Tuesday called on the company to end the comprehensive ban on the Arabic word “martyr” after a year-long review that concluded that the approach of the company that owns Facebook was “exaggerated” and did not A reason to block 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, which found that its approach had a “negative impact on human rights” for Palestinians and other users of its services. Arabic speakers.

These criticisms have escalated since the start of hostilities between Israel and the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in October. Human rights groups accused Meta of blocking content supporting the Palestinians on Facebook and Instagram against the backdrop of the war that claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people in Gaza following the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7.

Meta’s oversight board reached similar conclusions in its report on Tuesday, finding that Meta’s rules regarding the word “martyr” failed to take into account the diversity of meanings of the word and led to the removal of content that was not intended to praise acts of violence.

“Meta was operating on the assumption that oversight could improve safety, but evidence suggests 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 Islamist groups, drug gangs, and white supremacist organizations.

According to the report, the company says that the word constitutes a compliment to those entities that it bans.

Hamas is one of the groups that Meta classifies as a “dangerous organization.”

The council said Meta sought advice on the subject 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 that the company will review the Oversight Board’s assessment and will respond within 60 days.