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Reporters Without Borders (RSF) called on Facebook to restore articles that had been censored for violating its rules on nudity, and urged the social media platform to be more transparent and responsible in respecting the free flow of information.
“Your post violates our community’s standards regarding nudity or sexual activity.” This is the brief message from the professor David RobyWhenever he tried to share an article about press freedom in Melanesia, especially in Indonesia’s Papua and West Papua provinces, he would receive emails from Facebook’s Pacific Media Centre, a partner of Reporters Without Borders in Oceania, based in Auckland.
Posted on August 6 This article is from the International Federation of Journalists website Describes the contents of the latest issue of Pacific News Reviewa magazine published by the Pacific Media Centre.
Facebook’s algorithm censors it Because, according to an automated message sent to Dr Roby, “some viewers have different sensitivities to nudity.” The closest thing to nudity in the IFJ article was a photo of a Papuan student anti-racism protest in which two participants were dressed in traditional Highlander garb — complete with necklaces and penis sheaths.
tyranny
“Anyone with common sense would understand that this photo does not qualify as ‘nudity’ within the meaning of Facebook’s community standards guidelines,” said Roby, who condemned the “tyranny” of the platform’s algorithm. Roby, himself a former journalist and academic, tried unsuccessfully to report the error to Facebook three times on August 7. “There is no adequate process to challenge or appeal this arbitrary decision,” he said.
RSF contacted Mia Garlick, Facebook’s Australia and New Zealand policyto learn her position on the issue, but had not received any substantive response at the time of writing.
“This outrageous example of censorship shows that Facebook’s arbitrary algorithms pose a grave threat to the free flow of information and press freedom,” said Daniel Bastard, Asia-Pacific director for Reporters Without Borders. “As Facebook has become a major disseminator of news and information, it must be held accountable and transparent, and we call on its Asia-Pacific office to immediately lift the censorship of this article.”
Using Algorithms
This is not the first time Facebook has censored content about the rights of people in Papua, Indonesia, citing nudity. deleted Vanuatu Daily Post April 2018 Articles Because it was accompanied by a photo taken by an Australian photographer of a Papuan warrior in traditional dress Ben Bohane 1995. Pro-Indonesian trolls and fake Facebook accounts are known to report such photos to Facebook, using its algorithms to censor content they don’t like.
The issue of West Papua, the Indonesian part of the western half of the island of New Guinea, is taboo in Indonesia. For independent journalists, access to both provinces is difficultwho need a special visa to go there. When independence protests broke out in August 2019, Indonesian authorities Imposing an internet blockade on the regionpreventing journalists from covering the protests.
Indonesia ranks 119th out of 180 countries Reporters Without Borders’ 2020 World Press Freedom Index.
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