Meta Can’t Dodge Banned Words Controversy on Threads Forever

tech.hindustantimes.com:

Ten weeks into its existence, Meta Platforms Inc.'s Threads is trying desperately to avoid a fight about what content it allows on its site. After Meta finally added the ability to search for keywords, users looking for posts on several significant topics — such as “Covid” — were surprised to turn up no results. Posts with that word existed, of course, but Meta is making them much harder to find (instead pointing users to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website). To prevent the risk of users finding something potentially dangerous or incorrect on Threads, its competitor to the platform formerly known as Twitter, Meta has decided it is better for them to see nothing at all.

Meta has acknowledged the blocking on Threads but declined to share its list of banned words. In addition to “coronavirus,” “vaccine” and “long Covid,” the Washington Post discovered “sex,” “nude,” “gore” and “porn” were restricted.

It's a flawed solution to the intractable problem of having to handle platform safety and manage politically charged content in the current climate. Contradictory court decisions and ever-persistent accusations of bias and inaction have made such caution inevitable. Just more than a year out from a presidential election, we're arguably as far as we've ever been from answering the question of who gets to decide what is allowed on social media. So it's no surprise that having previously bent over backward to put in place policies to please (or maybe appease) everyone, Meta's latest approach is to attempt to duck the conversation as best it can.

Consider the ruling issued by the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals late Friday. Three Republican judges upheld an earlier court's view that the White House, government