Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
The Facebook Oversight Board has ordered Facebook to restore a post from a user in Myanmar criticizing the country’s new regime and its ties with China. The post was initially taken down for violating policies on racial hate speech against Chinese people, but the Oversight Board found the offending phrase was more appropriately viewed as political criticism of the Chinese government.
Issued on Wednesday morning, the decision turned on how Facebook moderators translated a specific Burmese word, rendered in the post as “$တရုတ်.” Facebook had translated the word as “fucking Chinese” and classified it as Tier 2 hate speech under the platform’s community standard. The user appealed the decision, describing the post as advice to elected…
