Meta reverses a long-standing policy on the Arabic word “martyr,” which was described as the most controlled word in the company’s apps. The company said To the Board of Control that the mere use of the word will no longer result in the removal of a post.
There was a Board of Control the company put a “blanket ban” on the word, often translated as “martyr,” although, as the board noted, it can have many meanings. However, Meta’s previous policy did not take this “language complexity” into account, resulting in a disproportionate number of deletions due to commonly used words. Witness, its board said earlier this year, among the company’s apps, “counts more removals of content under the Community Standards than any other word or phrase.”
In its latest update, Meta said it was trying a new approach to moderating the word following the board’s recommendation. “Preliminary results from our evaluation show that continuing to remove content when Martyr is combined with otherwise infringing content or when the Council’s three signals of violence are present captures the most potentially harmful content without disproportionately affecting the volume.” the company wrote.
The change should have a significant impact on Meta’s Arabic-speaking users, who, according to the board, have been unfairly censored as a result of the policy. “The Supervisory Board welcomes Meta’s announcement today that it will implement the Board’s recommendations and introduce significant changes to the unfair policy that has caused millions of people to be censored on its platform,” the board said in a statement. “Policy changes to how the Arabic word ‘shaheed’ is regulated should prompt removal of content, a more nuanced approach should end the ban on a term that Meta acknowledges. platforms.”
