LONDON — A Facebook executive has admitted that the company “made a mistake” in not removing a post that incited racial hatred in Sri Lanka, an international hearing on fake news and disinformation in London heard on Tuesday (Nov 27).
Mr Richard Allan, Facebook's vice-president of policy solutions, was questioned by Singapore Senior Minister of State for Law and Health Edwin Tong over a post, written in Sinhalese in March, which called for the killing of all Muslims.
Mr Allan agreed with Mr Tong that the post had breached the social media company’s terms of service. When Mr Tong asked why Facebook refused to take down the post in question, even after it was highlighted by Sri Lanka’s communications minister, Mr Allan said it was a “simple error" on the part of a Facebook employee.
Mr Tong argued it was no mistake and Facebook had replied to a user that the post does not go against its community standards.
The post was only stopped from circulating after the Sri Lankan government blocked Facebook