Meta Platforms said on Tuesday it would lift its blanket ban on the word "shaheed", or "martyr" in English, after a year-long review by its oversight board found the social media giant's approach was "overbroad".
The company has been criticized for years over its handling of content involving the Middle East, including in a 2021 study Meta itself commissioned that found its approach had an "adverse human rights impact" on Palestinians and other Arabic-speaking users of its services.
Those criticisms have escalated since the onset of hostilities between Israel and Hamas in October.
The oversight board, which is funded by Meta but operates independently, started its review last year because the word accounted for more content removals on the company's platforms than any other single word or phrase.
Meta is the parent company of Facebook and Instagram.
The review found in March that Meta's rules on "shaheed" failed to account for the word's variety of meanings and resulted in the removal of content not aimed at praising violent actions.
Meta acknowledged the findings of the review on Tuesday and said its tests showed that removing content when "shaheed" was "paired with otherwise violating content captures the most potentially harmful content without disproportionally impacting the voice".
The oversight board welcomed the change, saying Meta's policy related to the word had led to the censoring of millions of people across its platforms.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
Featured Video Of The Day
Threads Has 175 Million Monthly Active Users After a Year, Mark Zuckerberg Says India Among Most Active Markets Meta Looking to Hire Generative AI-Focused Workers on Metaverse Team After Layoffs Your Guide To WhatsApps Meta AI: Can It Solve Math Questions, Plan Trips? Labour Party Tipped For Landslide Win As UK Votes In Historic Polls Who Is Keir Starmer, Rishi Sunak's Opponent Pegged To Be Next UK PM In Tit-For-Tat Move, Congress Flags PM Modi's Speech In Parliament US Sees "Significant Opening" In Israel-Hamas Hostage Talks: Official "Unacceptable": S Jaishankar On Indians In Russian Army Pakistan To Host SCO Meeting In October 2024: Foreign Office Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world.