The business has faced criticism for years for how it handles Middle Eastern content. One study, which Meta commissioned in 2021, concluded that the company’s methods had an “adverse human rights impact” on Arabic-speaking users of its services, especially Palestinians.
Since Israel and Hamas began to combat in October, those criticisms have intensified.
The oversight board, which is independent but funded by Meta, began its investigation last year after the word was the most often removed content from the company’s platforms.
The parent corporation of Instagram and Facebook is called Meta.
Reviewers discovered in March that Meta’s policies on “shaheed” did not take into consideration the word’s multiplicity of meanings, leading to the removal of content that did not glorify violent acts.
On Tuesday, Meta announced that it had tested the idea that eliminating content with “shaheed” mixed with otherwise illegal content “captures the most potentially harmful content without disproportionally impacting the voice” and that this was the result of the review.
The oversight board applauded the modification, claiming that millions of users had been censored on Meta’s platforms as a result of its word restriction.
