What’s the news: Meta's Oversight Board on September 15 discussed concerns about hate speech moderation on Facebook and its other social media platforms during a roundtable session. The Board invited stakeholders to comment on the state of hate speech against minorities in South Asia, after announcing new cases from India and Nigeria. In March of this year, Meta took down a viral sexual assault video of an alleged “tribal woman” in India that was posted by an Instagram account posing as a platform for Dalit perspectives. Human reviewers determined that the media violated Meta’s Adult Sexual Exploitation policy. However, the company later restored the video citing a “newsworthiness allowance.” Meta then referred the case to the Board, stating that it “demonstrates the challenge in striking “the appropriate balance between allowing content that condemns sexual exploitation and the harm in allowing visual depictions of sexual harassment to remain on [its] platforms.”” Accordingly, the Board invited public comments by September 29 on whether Meta’s policies and enforcement practices “appropriately balance protecting users from potentially harmful content and allowing users to raise awareness.” Particularly, it welcomed insights into the socio-political context in South Asian countries that influence the treatment of Dalit and Adivasi individuals and other minority communities. “These insights may address any relevant power dynamics, practices of physical and social segregation and discrimination, and how existing hierarchies may be reproduced digitally,” said the Board in a press case summary. Why it matters: After the 2020 pogrom in North-east Delhi, hate speech online and…
