Facebook Denies Report It Gave Kazakhstan's Government Special Direct Access to Its Content Reporting System

UPDATED: Earlier this week ZDNet reported that Facebook's parent company Meta 'has granted the Kazakhstan government direct access to its content reporting system,' as part of a joint agreement to work on removing content that is deemed harmful on social network platforms like Facebook and Instagram,' with the agreement focusing on protecting children.

But the Washington Post clarified tonight that in fact Kazakhstan's statement 'was apparently released independent of Facebook.'

Meta spokesman Ben McConaghy said in an email that the company has 'a dedicated online channel for governments around the world to report content to us that they believe violates local law.'

'We follow a consistent global process to assess individual requests — independent from any government — in line with Facebook's policies, local laws and international human rights standards,' he added. 'This process is the same in Kazakhstan as it is for other countries around the world.'



Here's ZDNet's original report:

In a joint statement, the Ministry of Information and Social Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the social media giant said the agreement, which is the first of its kind in Central Asia, would help increase the efficiency and effectiveness to counter the spread of illegal content. Giving the Kazakhstan government access to its content reporting system will allow the government to report content that may violate Facebook's global content policy and local content laws in Kazakhstan, Facebook said. Under the agreement, both parties will also set up regular communication, including having an authorised representative from Facebook's regional office work with the Ministry on various policy issues.

'Facebook is delighted to work with the government of Kazakhstan together, particularly in the aspect of online safety for children,' Facebook regional public policy director George Chen said in a statement.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.