Meta’s oversight board has ruled it was wrong to ban a music video that UK law enforcement argued would “contribute a risk to offline harm.”
On Tuesday, the oversight board which consists of 20 journalists, academics and politicians, tasked with issuing independent judgments, ruled on a case related to the drill song, Secrets Not Safe by Chinx, which details gang shootings. The song was removed from Instagram in January, after two takedown requests from U.K. Police.
As censorship looms in the music industry, in July policy director for the U.K. based Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) Samir Jain said:
“Typically, when law enforcement wants to get content taken down, it would have to go to a court and convince the court that the content was unlawful and get a court order,” he told The Insider. “The concern is that basically law enforcement bypasses what would typically be the legal requirements for obtaining lawful process,” he continued.
“There’s a real risk to free expression more broadly, because you can imagine the government using Terms of Service violations as a pretext to try to get providers to take down government criticism or speech that the government doesn’t like,” Jain said. “Providers are in a tough position when you’ve got law enforcement requesting that information be taken down and asserting that it’s unlawful.”
Meta’s actions did not align with its policies, values or human rights responsibilities, the decision from the oversight board said on Tuesday.
Earlier this month in a move to censor violent narratives on dancehall music, Jamaica’s Broadcasting Commission, the entity tasked with regulating radio and television in the island has issued a directive banning all songs that promote illegal activities such as ‘chopping’ (scamming) and the use or “abuse of drugs including molly.”
The statement issued on October 11, under the heading: “BROADCAST COMMISSION ISSUES DIRECTIVE ON SONGS PROMOTING ILLEGAL ACTIVITY,” outlines that television and radio stations operating in the island should halt “any audio or video recording, live song, or speech which promotes and/or glorifies scamming illegal use or abuse of drugs (e.g. ‘Molly’), illegal or harmful use of guns or other offensive weapons, “jungle justice” or any other form of illegal or criminal activity.”
In the last four years much of the music that has saturated Jamaica’s airwaves first got recognition via YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and other streaming platforms, and then radio disc jocks include edited versions of those songs in their playlists.
That practice can no longer happen for songs that fall in the category stated as the Commission further stated that all edited versions of songs that had the promotion of illegal activities should not be played on the airwaves.
The recommendation by the oversight body in the U.K. will bring fresh eyes on how the authorities including police groups can submit takedown requests for legal content, with forces from the US to Israel having dedicated units for social media platforms.
The UK’s online safety bill, due to become law next year, could compel platforms to remove content considered “legal but harmful”. That measure would be a new global precedent on the regulation of online content, with privacy advocates arguing it would limit freedom of expression, per the Financial Times.
New York City mayor Eric Adams held a summit with a group of drill rappers on the night of February 15 after declaring war on the music.
He back pedaled, saying he doesn’t actually want to ban their music, days after he all but blamed the vibrant Brooklyn bred hip hop music scene for the shooting deaths of two young New York rappers. He made strong suggestions about drill videos be pulled from the internet.
He says he wants to work with the artists and find solutions to the violence in New York’s roughest neighborhoods.
The influence of Drill which started in Chicago has gone mainstream, influencing acts such as Cardi B, Fivio Foreign, Drake, Travis Scott and even Kanye West. There are now groups in various parts of the world who have their own versions of Drill music.
