Content Moderation Case Studies: How To Moderate World Leaders Justifying Violence (2020)
from the leaders-acting-badly dept
Summary: There is an inherent tension in handling content moderation of world leaders -- especially more controversial ones. If those leaders break the rules on social media, some reasonably call for the content, or the accounts, to be removed for violating policies. Others, however, point out that it is important for the public to be aware of what world leaders are saying, rather than removing and hiding the speech.
Twitter has had a public interest exception for tweets from world leaders since at least 2019. Under that policy, Twitter may choose to leave up some content from a world leader that the company admits violates its rules, under the belief that it is more important that the world know what that leader has said. Since 2019, Twitter announced that when it found such content, it would label it clearly -- publicly noting that it violated the company’s policies, but was being kept up due to the public interest.
The policy was put to the test in October 2020, following the murder of a teacher in a Paris suburb, after the teacher had shown students cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad while discussing the controversy over such drawings. A week later, three people were stabbed in Nice, in southern France. French President Emmanuel Macron described both attacks as “Islamist terrorist attacks."
Soon after the latter attack, former prime minister of Malaysia Mahathir Bin Mohamad posted a Twitter thread discussing both attacks. While the thread touched on a variety of points, urged people not to scapegoat entire religions, and said he did not approve of the killings, the twelfth tweet raised many concerns by stating: "Muslims have a right to be angry and kill millions of French people for the massacres of the past."
Twitter posted its public interest notice on this particular tweet, noting that it violated Twitter’s rules about glorifying violence, but Twitter felt that it “may be in the public’s interest for the tweet to remain accessible.”
Many disagreed with this decision, including French officials. France’s digital minister, Cédric O, claimed that if Twitter did not remove the tweet, it would make the company an “accomplice to a formal call for murder.”
Decisions to be made by Twitter:
- What qualifies a tweet from a foreign leader that violates policies to remain up under a “public interest” exception?
- Under what conditions would Twitter reverse this policy and remove tweets?
- How much context should Twitter take into account regarding the tweets? That is, how much should the attacks in France play into the decision regarding this tweet?
- Whether or not Twitter removes this particular tweet, it is likely to get attention and news coverage. How much does it matter whether or not Twitter removes or labels the particular tweet?
- Should world leaders get special treatment by nature of their position and the fact that what they say can impact world events?
Originally posted to the Trust & Safety Foundation website.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: content moderation, france, mahatir bin mohamad, newsworthiness, paris, violence, world leaders
Companies: twitter
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Trump's wet dream
Or, How World Leaders Justify Violence against critics.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Narendra Modi's wet dream
Or, how World Leaders get away with suppressing criticism by threatening violence (criminal charges) against companies and, as proxies, their employees.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Kroger Secure WEB
ess.kroger.com is the official Greatpeople.me secure web Portal, run and operated by Kroger Inc. to provide them with exciting benefits. Kroger Secure WEB provides consistent information and stays tuned with the company.
https://greatpeopleme.site/ess-kroger-com/
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Spambot alert
Buzz off, spambot.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Best Apollo Tyre shop in Noida Extension
Nand Motors are one of the leading tyre dealer shop in Noida and near Noida extension, So if you are looking authorised Apollo tyre dealers then near you in Noida then call us or visit ou workshop, we will give you best car care services. Right now, we have 2 work shops in Noida. We have all kind of branded tyres available with us but most of the demanding tyre Apollo, we can give you on best prices because we are the authourised dealer of Apollo tyre.
http://www.nandmotors.in/apollo-tyres-dealer-shop-noida.php
[ link to this | view in chronology ]