Facebook confronts human rights dilemma on political speech
Skip to main content
  • Home
  • Economy
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Splash
  • Features
  • Videos
  • Long Read
  • Games
  • Epaper
  • More
    • COVID-19
    • Bangladesh
    • Infograph
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Thoughts
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Subscribe
    • Archive
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
    • Supplement
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard
TUESDAY, MAY 17, 2022
TUESDAY, MAY 17, 2022
  • Home
  • Economy
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Splash
  • Features
  • Videos
  • Long Read
  • Games
  • Epaper
  • More
    • COVID-19
    • Bangladesh
    • Infograph
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Thoughts
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Subscribe
    • Archive
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
    • Supplement
  • বাংলা
Facebook confronts human rights dilemma on political speech

Analysis

Reuters
06 May, 2021, 05:00 pm
Last modified: 06 May, 2021, 05:27 pm

Related News

  • Facebook assured to remove offensive posts: Mustafa Jabbar
  • Facebook-owner Meta gives preview of its first store, enterprise tools
  • Facebook parent to slow hiring as costs mount
  • Meta shares surge after Facebook ekes out user growth
  • Eid shopping 2022: Facebook influencing clothing choices

Facebook confronts human rights dilemma on political speech

The company's policies on these issues have huge importance not just in the United States but in countries including India, Brazil, Myanmar and the Philippines

Reuters
06 May, 2021, 05:00 pm
Last modified: 06 May, 2021, 05:27 pm
US President Donald Trump taps the screen on a mobile phone in the State Dining Room at the White House in Washington, U.S., June 18, 2020. REUTERS/Leah Millis
US President Donald Trump taps the screen on a mobile phone in the State Dining Room at the White House in Washington, U.S., June 18, 2020. REUTERS/Leah Millis

Facebook Inc oversight board's extension of former US President Donald Trump's banishment from the social network failed to settle how it will balance political leaders' freedom of speech and its responsibility to make sure hateful rhetoric does not incite violence.

The 20-person board, which includes legal scholars, activists and a former prime minister, upheld Trump's suspension from Facebook for the time being but said the company needed to do far more to prepare for volatile political situations.

The company's policies on these issues have huge importance not just in the United States but in countries including India, Brazil, Myanmar and the Philippines. Political leaders there have turned to the social network to stoke hate or spread misinformation, both with deadly consequences, according to critical reviews by the United Nations and other bodies.

"Facebook has become a virtually indispensable medium for political discourse," the board said in its Wednesday ruling. "It has a responsibility both to allow political expression and to avoid serious risks to other human rights."

The Oversight Board gave Facebook credit for evaluating Trump's actions during the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol, which prompted his ban from the service, against the Rabat Plan of Action, a globally accepted test for distinguishing incitement of hatred and violence from what should be protected as free speech.

The six-point Rabat plan considers the context and intent of the speech, the speaker, the content itself, its reach and the imminence of harm. Trump, president at the time, told protesters in a Facebook video that they were "very special," even as some were still storming into the Capitol. Trump's account had 35 million followers.

The board concluded that Trump "used the communicative authority of the presidency in support of attackers," and his violation of Facebook's policies against glorifying violence was "severe in terms of its human rights harms." It did not exercise its authority to tell Facebook it must ban Trump permanently.

But the board chastised Facebook for not having a process for re-applying that or some other test to determine when Trump's privileges should be restored. It gave Facebook six months to decide on Trump's status and urged the company to develop a policy to handle crises in which its existing options would not prevent imminent harm.

Facebook said it is reviewing the feedback.

India turmoil

Trump's suspension was the first time Facebook blocked a current president, prime minister or head of state. In March, it booted Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro for 30 days for spreading Covid-19 misinformation. His administration called the penalty "digital totalitarianism."

As it has become a major information source, Facebook has mostly given leeway to political leaders because what they say is newsworthy and important to the functioning of governments. Still, its policing of rule-breaking politicians, and political speech more broadly, has prompted backlash from governments and new regulatory threats in India, Hungary and Mexico.

Many civil society advocates say the company is too ready to silence political dissent and has no toolkit for dealing with the many ways authoritarian governments are manipulating its services, which also include Instagram and WhatsApp.

The issue is especially fraught in India, where users since last year have criticized Facebook for being slow to police hate speech and other actions by politicians of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. Meanwhile, the government demanded that Facebook remove posts critical of its handling of the pandemic, including some by local lawmakers.

At the heart of the board's order in the Trump case is the view that every Facebook user, including Trump, deserves clarity on actions that will get them banned forever and steps they can take to ensure temporary suspensions are lifted.

United Nations conventions, which establish a widely respected though voluntary framework for international human rights law, hold that freedom of expression is a bedrock right, and thus people should not be subject to arbitrary muzzling by Facebook. The company committed to upholding such human rights in a corporate policy unveiled in March that includes annual follow-up reports.

"If you believe in the international human rights law principles that guide the decision, it is hard to see how a lifetime ban could EVER be permissible for any content violation," Nate Persily, a Stanford University law professor, tweeted on Wednesday.

But human rights law also holds that people must be protected from violence and other forms of harm.

Sarah Morris, director of New America's Open Technology Institute, said the board's decision indicates Trump's repeated problematic postings in the run-up to Jan. 6 and their impact on the attack "make it a particularly egregious case that warranted deplatforming" him.

The board declined to go down the road recommended by a minority of members that Trump should not be reinstated until the company is satisfied that he has stopped making false claims about widespread fraud in the election he lost last year and disavowed support for those involved in the Capitol attack.

If Facebook adopted that requirement, Trump's return may be far off. He has called Joe Biden's 2020 presidential election victory "THE BIG LIE!," repeating the claim as recently as Monday.

Top News / World+Biz

Facebook

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • Photo: Bloomberg
    Putin sets Russians on wild hunt for Dollars in black market
  • A packet of US five-dollar bills is inspected at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Washington March 26, 2015. REUTERS/Gary Cameron
    Dollar price crosses Tk100 in open market 
  • Sweden's Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson and the Moderate Party's leader Ulf Kristersson (not pictured) hold a news conference in Stockholm, Sweden on 16 May 2022. TT News Agency/Henrik Montgomery via
    Sweden and Finland to hand in NATO applications on Wednesday, Swedish PM says

MOST VIEWED

  • Photo: Bloomberg
    Putin sets Russians on wild hunt for Dollars in black market
  • People shop for cooking oil made from oil palms at a supermarket in Jakarta, Indonesia, March 27, 2022. REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan/Files
    Why Indonesia's palm oil export ban has not cooled cooking oil prices
  • Despite Bangladesh having about 24,000 km of waterways, only a few hundred kilometres are covered by commercial launch services. Photo: Saad Abdullah
    Utilising waterways: When common home-goers show the way
  • Illustration: TBS
    How Putin revived Nato
  • Food inflation pain puts emerging markets between rock and hard place
    Food inflation pain puts emerging markets between rock and hard place
  • NATO prepares to add Finland and Sweden to northern defenses
    NATO prepares to add Finland and Sweden to northern defenses

Related News

  • Facebook assured to remove offensive posts: Mustafa Jabbar
  • Facebook-owner Meta gives preview of its first store, enterprise tools
  • Facebook parent to slow hiring as costs mount
  • Meta shares surge after Facebook ekes out user growth
  • Eid shopping 2022: Facebook influencing clothing choices

Features

Despite Bangladesh having about 24,000 km of waterways, only a few hundred kilometres are covered by commercial launch services. Photo: Saad Abdullah

Utilising waterways: When common home-goers show the way

8h | Panorama
Illustration: TBS

How Putin revived Nato

10h | Panorama
The reception is a volumetric box-shaped room that has two glass walls on both the front and back ends and the other two walls are adorned with interior plants, wood and aluminium screens. Photo: Noor-A-Alam

The United House: Living and working inside nature

10h | Habitat
Pcycle team members at a waste management orientation event. Photo: Courtesy

Pcycle: Turning waste from bins into beautiful crafts

11h | Panorama

More Videos from TBS

The first mosque in India was built Prophet Mohammad time

The first mosque in India was built Prophet Mohammad time

1h | Videos
After six decades ,the Archies is back

After six decades ,the Archies is back

1h | Videos
Exporters in discomfort, expatriates preferring Hundi

Exporters in discomfort, expatriates preferring Hundi

1h | Videos
Can your coworker be your closest friend?

Can your coworker be your closest friend?

11h | Videos

Most Read

1
Representative Photo: Pixabay.
Bangladesh

Microplastics found in 5 local sugar brands

2
Mushfiq Mobarak. Photo: Noor-A-Alam
Panorama

Meet the Yale professor who anchors his research in Bangladesh and scales up interventions globally

3
Impact of falling taka against US dollar
Banking

Taka losing more value as global currency market volatility persists

4
Govt tightens belt to relieve reserve
Economy

Govt tightens belt to relieve reserve

5
Union Capital asked to return Tk100cr FDR to BATBC 
Banking

Union Capital asked to return Tk100cr FDR to BATBC 

6
How Bangladesh can achieve edible oil self-sufficiency with local alternatives
Bazaar

How Bangladesh can achieve edible oil self-sufficiency with local alternatives

The Business Standard
Top
  • Home
  • Entertainment
  • Sports
  • About Us
  • Bangladesh
  • International
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
  • Contact Us
  • Economy
  • Sitemap
  • RSS

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - oped.tbs@gmail.com

For advertisement- sales@tbsnews.net

Copyright © 2022 THE BUSINESS STANDARD All rights reserved. Technical Partner: RSI Lab