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A group of outside experts on Thursday ordered Facebook to reinstate a post that accused Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi of participating in efforts to kill the country’s Sikh religious minority.
The decision comes as India’s government is putting pressure on social media companies to remove critical posts, particularly related to the rising numbers of COVID-19 deaths in the country. The same group also will soon rule whether Donald Trump can have his account reinstated on Facebook — a decision now expected in early May.
In its ruling, which is binding on the company, the so-called Oversight Board said Facebook’s initial decision to remove the post critical of Modi and his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party did not meet the company’s community standards.
The social media giant had agreed to reinstate the post before the outside experts began reviewing the case. But the body said that Facebook had not provided the user with sufficient means to appeal when the post was first removed, and that the company must take into consideration the difficulties that India’s minority groups are now facing in the country.
“The post highlighted the concerns of minority and opposition voices in India that are allegedly being discriminated against by the government,” the Oversight Board said in a statement. “It is particularly important that Facebook takes steps to avoid mistakes which silence such voices.”
A representative for Facebook was not immediately available for comment.
This is the latest case where the Oversight Board has ruled against Facebook in decisions over what can and cannot be posted on the world’s largest social network.
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