Oversight Board overturns Facebook’s decision to remove a post related to ‘genocide of Sikhs’

The Oversight Board, an impartial physique arrange by Facebook, on Thursday stated it has overturned the social community’s decision to remove a November 2020 post alleging that the RSS and PM Narendra Modi had been threatening to kill Sikhs in India.

“The Oversight Board has overturned Facebook’s original decision to remove a post about India’s Sikh community under its rules on dangerous individuals and organisations,” the Board, whereas expressing considerations that Facebook didn’t overview the consumer’s enchantment towards its authentic decision.

“The Board also urged the company to take action to avoid mistakes which silence the voices of religious minorities,” it stated.

The case relates to a November 2020 post the place a consumer shared a video post from on-line media firm Global Punjab TV that includes a 17-minute interview with “a social activist and supporter of the Punjabi culture” Professor Manjit Singh. In the textual content accompanying the post, the consumer claimed the RSS was threatening to kill Sikhs, and to repeat the “deadly saga” of 1984. The consumer additionally alleged that Prime Minister Modi himself is formulating the risk of “Genocide of the Sikhs” on recommendation of the RSS President, Mohan Bhagwat.

This post was seen fewer than 500 instances and brought down after a single report by a human reviewer for violating Facebook’s Community Standard on harmful people and organisations.

“This triggered an automatic restriction on the user’s account. Facebook told the user that they could not review their appeal of the removal because of a temporary reduction in review capacity due to COVID-19,” the Board stated.

After the consumer submitted their enchantment to the Board, Facebook recognized the removing of this post as an enforcement error and restored the content material. “Facebook noted that none of the groups or individuals mentioned in the content are designated as “dangerous” beneath its guidelines. The firm additionally couldn’t determine the particular phrases within the post which led to it being eliminated in error,” it stated.

The Board stated it discovered that Facebook’s authentic decision to remove the post was not per the corporate’s Community Standards or its human rights duties.

“The Board noted that the post highlighted the concerns of minority and opposition voices in India that are allegedly being discriminated against by the government. It is particularly important that Facebook takes steps to avoid mistakes which silence such voices,” it stated.

While recognising the distinctive circumstances of COVID-19, the Board acknowledged that Facebook didn’t give sufficient time or consideration to reviewing this content material. “It stressed that users should be able to appeal cases to Facebook before they come to the Board and urged the company to prioritize restoring this capacity,” it stated.

The Board additionally famous that Facebook’s transparency reporting makes it troublesome to assess whether or not enforcement of the Dangerous Individuals and Organisations coverage has a explicit impression on minority language audio system or spiritual minorities in India.

In a coverage advisory assertion, the Board recommends that Facebook translate its Community Standards and Internal Implementation Standards into Punjabi and must also intention to make its Community Standards accessible in all languages extensively spoken by its customers.

Further, Facebook ought to restore each human overview of content material moderation selections and entry to a human appeals course of to pre-pandemic ranges as quickly as potential, whereas defending the well being of Facebook’s employees and contractors.

“Increase public information on error rates by making this viewable by country and language for each Community Standard in its transparency reporting,” the board has beneficial.