For years, human rights monitors have been outraged at the selective policing of content on Meta’s social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. The company’s latest enforcement action is hardly shocking at this point, but it provides a crystal clear example of the kinds of things Meta will — and won’t — allow on its apps.
In a bizarre case of digital censorship, Meta’s content moderation system stepped in to stop a local theatre in Barcelona from promoting a stage adaptation on the grounds that it violated a rule on promoting “social topics,” per the Guardian.
The production in question is an adaptation of “A Room of One’s Own,” a book by the legendary English author and feminist Virginia Woolf. According to the Teatre Raval, planned promotional posts about the show were blocked on both Instagram and Facebook, likely by an automated content moderation system.
After reaching out to Meta about why the promo campaign had been stomped out, the company replied that “any mention of civil rights, feminism or social reform are usually classified as ‘social topics’ by our automatic system,” and therefore rejected.
