Meta’s Oversight Board Demands Transparency on New Hate Speech Policies

An Oversight Board Demands Meta’s Revise Hate Speech Policies

The Oversight Board expressed serious concerns about Meta’s new hate speech policies. In its latest response, the independent advisory group said Meta made these changes too fast and without proper consultation.

The Board, which was set up to advise Meta on content moderation, asked the company to publicly share more details about the new policies and how they will impact vulnerable communities – including immigrants and LGBTQIA+ users. It also wants Meta to update it every six months with progress reports.

Meta’s new policies were part of CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s push for “more speech” across Facebook, Instagram and Threads. But this included rolling back protections for some user groups, which backfired.

The Board issued 17 recommendations to Meta, covering harassment rules enforcement, transparency on hateful ideologies and community notes system evaluation. It also asked Meta to honour its previous commitment to the UN’s Human Rights Principles.

While the Oversight Board can’t enforce broad policy changes, Meta has to comply with its decisions on individual posts. In recent decisions on 11 cases, the Board overturned Meta’s decision to leave up some posts with hate speech and asked for clearer guidelines – especially on anti-migrant and anti-Muslim content.

The Board also recommended removing the term “transgenderism” from Meta’s Hateful Conduct policy, saying we need to use respectful language.

As the pressure mounts, the spotlight is now on Meta to be accountable and protect all communities online.