Meta’s Oversight Board, an independent panel that the parent company of Facebook and Instagram selected to deliberate its content decisions, has asked the tech firm to “increase transparency around government requests” regarding suppressing COVID-19 content.
The Oversight Board noted that concerns were raised about Meta reviewing COVID-19-related content at the behest of governments during the height of the pandemic, it said in a statement published on April 20.
“This is particularly problematic where governments make requests to crack down on peaceful protesters or human rights defenders, to control conversations about the origins of the pandemic and to silence those criticizing or questioning government responses to the public health crisis,” it said. “The United Nations has raised concerns that some governments have used the pandemic as a pretext to erode the tenets of democracy.”…