FB review board in first action

WASHINGTON: Facebook’s new oversight board said on Thursday in its first rulings that in four of five cases it had considered, the company was wrong to remove controversial posts from the platform.

These did not include Donald Trump’s indefinite suspension from Facebook and Instagram after the storming of the US Capitol, but the board said last week it agreed to consider that case.

The Oversight Board said it was overturning the platform’s ruling in four of the five cases it looked at and ordering that the disputed content be restored to Facebook. These four included, for example, a post that asserted that France lacked a health care strategy and included claims that a cure for Covid-19 exists.

This post was initially removed on grounds that it contributed to "risk of imminent ... physical harm." But the review board said Facebook’s rule on misinformation and imminent harm was "inappropriately vague." Another case involved nudity. An Instagram user in Brazil had posted pictures of women’s nipples as part of a breast cancer awareness message.