Meta Oversight Board Urges Company To Lift Ban On Arabic Word “Shaheed”

Meta’s oversight board has urged the company to lift its blanket ban on the Arabic word ‘Shaheed’, meaning ‘martyr’ in English. The approach is considered excessive and is viewed as unfairly restricting freedom of speech for users globally.

The Board is funded by Meta but functions autonomously, asserted that the social media platform ought to only delete posts containing the term “shaheed” if they exhibit clear indicators of violence or if they independently breach other Meta policies.

The criticisms have intensified since the outbreak of conflicts between Israel and Hamas in October. Rights organizations have accused Meta of censoring content that supports Palestinians on Facebook and Instagram amid a conflict that resulted in tens of thousands of casualties in Gaza following Hamas’ attacks on Israel on October 7.

In its report on Tuesday, the Meta Oversight Board arrived at a conclusions, determining that Meta’s guidelines regarding “shaheed” overlooked the word’s diverse interpretations and led to the deletion of content unrelated to glorifying violent behavior.

“Meta has been operating under the assumption that censorship can and will improve safety, but the evidence suggests that censorship can marginalize whole populations while not improving safety at all,” Oversight Board co-chair Helle Thorning-Schmidt said in a statement.

Currently, Meta removes any posts containing the word “shaheed” when referring to individuals listed on its roster of “dangerous organizations and individuals,” which encompasses members of Islamist groups, drug cartels, and white supremacist organizations.

The company asserts that the word endorses or praises those entities which it has banned.

Last year, Meta requested input from the board on this matter after initiating a review of the policy in 2020, but internal consensus was not reached, stated the board. In its request, the board disclosed that “shaheed” resulted in more content removals on Meta’s platforms than any other single word or phrase.

As per Media reports a spokesperson from Meta has said that the company will review the boards feedback and respond within 60 days.