Facebook now requires legal notice before removing content

Facebook users can still report content that

they find offensive and a legal notice is

required for posts which violate Indian law,

and not its community standards.

Facebook has changed its policies regarding

the removal of content. Before any content is

restricted for illegality, it will require a legal or

government notice. Monika Bickert,

Facebook’s Global Policy Head told Economic

Times , “"We have changed our process. So

now, before we restrict content in India for

illegality, we require that the government

submit legal process to us and we scrutinise

that with our legal teams. We would not

restrict the content if somebody in the

community, somebody outside the

government, flagged that content." However,

Bickert noted that this change in policy does

not mean that people cannot report content

that they find offensive.

When someone in India reports offensive

content , Facebook will first see it if violates it

community standards. It if is found to violate

these standards, it will be removed. However,

if the post doesn’t violate community

standards, but violates Indian law, Facebook

will require government orders.

As per a report by Facebook , India has 14,971

requests for content restriction between July

and December. This is a decrease from the

15,155 requests for content restriction that

were made during the first half of 2015. The

report also notes that Indian government made

5,561 requests for data.