Facebook accidentally lost a piece of its moderation policy for three years
A demonstration in Rome in support of freeing Kurdish political leader Abdullah Ocalan. | Photo by Matteo Nardone / Pacific Press / LightRocket / Getty Images
Instagram accidentally banned a post criticizing solitary confinement because Facebook had misplaced the policy allowing it, according to a new Facebook Oversight Board (FOB) decision.
The semi-independent Oversight Board says the Facebook-owned site should not have removed a post about Abdullah Öcalan, a founding member of the militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Facebook designates Öcalan and the PKK “dangerous entities” that users cannot support on its platforms. In January, moderators applied that policy to a message criticizing Öcalan’s imprisonment and solitary confinement — a practice the United Nations has deemed a form of torture — in a Turkish prison.
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