Facebook ‘misplaced’ important rule exception on discussing dangerous individuals, says oversight board
- The lost rule was said to have allowed for the discussion of people or organisations deemed dangerous when centred around conditions of confinement
- The oversight board had overturned the removal of an Instagram post about the solitary confinement of Abdullah Ocalan, of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party
It said the content should never have been removed, but it also said that after it selected the case, Facebook found a relevant piece of its internal rules had “inadvertently not transferred” to a new review system in 2018.
This guidance made an exception to Facebook’s rules, which prohibit support or praise of individuals or organisations it designates as dangerous, to allow discussion on the conditions of confinement.
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It said the guidance, which was not shared with Facebook’s policy team, was developed in 2017 partly in response to concerns about the conditions of Ocalan’s imprisonment.
A company spokeswoman declined to answer Reuters questions about how the policy was lost. The board said Facebook was conducting a review of how it failed to transfer the guidance but said it was not “technically feasible” to determine how many pieces of content were taken down while the guidance was not available. Facebook had restored the content before the board’s decision.
The board has recommended Facebook publish the results of its review, including descriptions of any other lost policies.
