On September 15, 2022, the Oversight Board overturned Meta’s original decision to remove a Facebook post from a news outlet page reporting a positive announcement from the Taliban regime in Afghanistan on women and girls’ education. The case originated in January 2022 when a popular Urdu-language newspaper in India reported on its Facebook page that Zabiullah Mujahid, a member of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and its official central spokesperson, announced that schools and colleges for women and girls would reopen in March 2022. Meta removed the post, imposed “strikes” against the page administrator, and limited their access to certain Facebook features. This was because the company determined the post violated its Dangerous Individuals and Organizations Community Standard under its prohibition on praising a designated terrorist group. Nevertheless, after the Board selected the case for review, Meta determined that this was an enforcement error; that the content fell into the Dangerous Individuals and Organizations Community Standard policy exception for reporting and, thus, should not have been removed.
According to the Board, Meta’s original decision to remove the post was inconsistent with Facebook’s Dangerous Individuals and Organizations Community Standard since the content fell under the policy’s allowance on “reporting on” designated entities. The Board also deemed that Meta’s decision was inconsistent with the company’s human rights responsibilities since it unjustifiably restricted freedom of expression, which encompasses the right to impart and receive information, including on terrorist groups. While Meta reversed its decision due to the Board selecting the case, the Board concluded that the user had already experienced several days of feature-limits that were not fully rectified.
*The Oversight Board is a separate entity from Meta and will provide its independent judgment on both individual cases and questions of policy. Both the Board and its administration are funded by an independent trust. The Board has the authority to decide whether Facebook and Instagram should allow or remove content. These decisions are binding, unless implementing them could violate the law. The Board can also choose to issue recommendations on the company’s content policies.