FB admits 'serious mistake' in not removing racial hatred post in SL

Colombo (News1st): A Facebook executive has admitted that the company “made a mistake” in not removing a post that incited racial hatred in Sri Lanka. Richard Allan, Facebook’s Vice President of policy solutions, was questioned by Singapore Member of Parliament Edwin Tong over a post, written in Sinhalese in March, which called for the killing of all Muslims. Tong asked if the post breached the social media company’s terms of service. Allan agreed it did. When Tong asked why Facebook refused to take down the post in question, even after it was highlighted by Sri Lanka’s communications minister, Allan said it was a “simple error” on the part of a Facebook employee. The post was only stopped from circulating after the Sri Lankan government blocked Facebook.