Meta Revises Policy on Arabic Word "Shaheed" Following Oversight Board Criticism
Social Media Giant to Lift Blanket Ban, Address Linguistic Complexity and Free Expression Concerns
The Arabic word "shaheed," which is one of the most restricted words on the company's social media applications, Facebook and Instagram, will now be subject to a new regulation from Meta.
The oversight board received an update from the Mark Zuckerberg-led corporation stating that the word's complete ban will be lifted.
The word, which is typically rendered as "martyr" in English, was the subject of a "blanket ban" that the board had previously criticized the corporation for.
"The board believes that Meta's approach to moderating the word'shaheed' is excessively restrictive and disproportionately stifles free speech and public debate," the statement reads.
The board stated that Meta's "presumption that referring to a designated individual as'shaheed' always constituted 'praise' under the Dangerous Organizations and Individuals policy resulted in a blanket ban." The board exercises "platform self-governance" to decide what content is moderated on Facebook and Instagram.
The board stated that the business failed to take into account the word's "many uses" and "linguistic complexity." The board stated that speakers of Arabic and speakers of other languages with "shaheed" loanwords are disproportionately affected by this over-enforcement.
According to Meta, "first findings from our analysis suggest that removing content when'shaheed' is combined with other illegal content, or when any of the three violent signals listed by the board, is present, captures the most potentially harmful content without disproportionately affecting voice."
The word was the reason behind the most content removals from the company's platforms last year, according to the board, which is autonomous but receives funding from Meta.
When used in regard to a specific person, the word "shaheed" is now treated by Meta as explicit praise, and "we remove this content when we're aware of it." According to the business, the phrase is left in place "on its own or when used to reference non-designated individuals."
Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Press Time staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.
