Facebook has to return a deleted video in which Colombian president Iván Duque is being called names. The Supervisory Board of the social medium believes that the news value of the images is more important.
In the video, Duque is called” Son of a bitch “and “faggot.” The video was removed by Facebook, because the word “faggot” (in Spanish marica) is hurtful and discriminates against homosexuals.
The Oversight Board agrees that this word should not be allowed, but in this case the news value of the video was more important. The council states that the video was shot during major protests in Colombia against the Duque government.
“That was an important moment in the history of the country.”
According to the Oversight Board, more profanity is used and the slogans were mainly intended as criticism of the government. In cases like this, Facebook must always make a well-considered trade-off between allowing news and preventing discrimination, according to the supervisory board.
The social medium should also clarify the rules governing the removal of discriminatory content. The guidelines for when something is newsworthy and should not be removed should be better found for users of the platform.
