Facebook takedown portal
Erika Whittome made this Official Information request to Department of Internal Affairs
Department of Internal Affairs did not have the information requested.
From: Erika Whittome
Dear Department of Internal Affairs,
Please provide any and all communications, internal and external where Internal Affairs has discussed or acted in using the Facebook takedown portal to refer activity by me on Facebook, with my account under my name, Erika Whittome.
Kindly share the settings on the takedown portal for my account, such as shadow banning, any "misinformation" or sets of keywords used on my posts to detect "moderation alerts" or similar "community standard" alerts etc.
Yours faithfully,
Erika Whittome
From: minadviceteam
Department of Internal Affairs
Tçnâ koe Erika,
Thank you for your OIA request to the Department of Internal Affairs.
The Department will provide its response to your request as soon as
practicable and within twenty working days. The 20th working day is 22
March 2024.
Please note that in cases where the Department’s response provides
information that is identified to be of general public interest, the
response may also be published on the Department of Internal Affairs
website. If the Department publishes its response to your OIA request,
all personal information, including your name and contact details, will be
removed.
Nâku, nâ
Ministerial and Official Correspondence Team
From: minadviceteam
Department of Internal Affairs
Kia ora,
We have prepared a response to your Official Information Act 1982 request
OIA2324-0648. Given that your request was for information related
specifically to yourself, would you like the response to be sent to a
personal email address? If so, you can provide this address to:
[email address].
Ngā mihi
Ministerial and Official Correspondence Team
From: Erika Whittome
Dear minadviceteam,
The email address you have provided in your last update is not visible because it appears this FYI page hides emails. What are the next steps please to getting this information?
Yours sincerely,
Erika Whittome
From: minadviceteam
Department of Internal Affairs
Kia ora,
If you would like your response to be sent to a personal email address, you can provide it by replying to this email.
Ngā mihi
Ministerial and Official Correspondence Team
show quoted sections
From: Erika Whittome
Dear minadviceteam,
I have requested information under the official information act. Would you kindly share it?
Yours sincerely,
Erika Whittome
From: minadviceteam
Department of Internal Affairs
Kia ora,
Please find attached the response to your Official Information Act 1982
request OIA2324-0648.
Ngā mihi
Ministerial and Official Correspondence Team
From: Erika Whittome
Dear minadviceteam,
Would you please address my questions about the takedown portal? Another OIA confirms that the DIA uses this portal which is for censorship on Facebook.
Yours sincerely,
Erika Whittome
From: Erika Whittome
Dear minadviceteam,
I’ll give you an example, (and I have many). I made a post on FB around the 7th Sept 2021 and shared a link to Medsafe’s website which at the time reported 31 vaccine related deaths (https://www.medsafe.govt.nz/COVID-19/saf...)
FB removed my post and I received this message from FB:
“We have these standards to prevent things such as
false advertising, fraud and security breaches.”
Note: Medsafe is an agency of the crown/ ministry of health and not an agency of Facebook. This was a report from a crown agency sharing the adverse events from a provisionally approved medicine .
Kindly share the Facebook takedown portal information on me please (https://www.facebook.com/xtakedowns/login)
Yours sincerely,
Erika Whittome
From: minadviceteam
Department of Internal Affairs
Dear Erika,
Thank you for your email.
As you may be aware, Te Tari Taiwhenua can make takedown requests to Meta (previously Facebook) for posts containing content that appear to breach Meta’s terms and conditions. However, it is for Meta to decide what action it takes.
In response to your request for communications related to your Meta account, we confirmed that Te Tari Taiwhenua | the Department of Internal Affairs holds no information about any reporting or referrals about your account. Therefore, there are no settings or keywords associated with your account.
Ngâ mihi
Ministerial and Official Correspondence Team
show quoted sections
From: Emma Atkins
Department of Internal Affairs
Kia ora Erika,
I can advise that the takedown notice was not instigated by the Department
of Internal Affairs, and therefore we have no information about this or
any other takedown actions for your Facebook profile. This was outlined in
our OIA response.
Facebook (Meta) does not require a referral from Department of Internal
Affairs to action a takedown. Facebook (Meta) may have done this
themselves or have had a referral from another source.
You may wish to seek an explanation of this from Facebook (Meta) directly.
Regards, Emma
Emma Atkins (she/her) | Manager Ministerial and Official Correspondence
Toi Hiranga | Regulation & Policy
Phone 027 254 9690
Te Tari Taiwhenua | Department of Internal Affairs
[1]Logo: Te Tari Taiwhenua | Internal Affairs
References
Visible links
From: Erika Whittome
Dear Emma Atkins,
Please would you clarify what you mean by "Instigated"? Is there inter-agency use of the facebook takedown portal which the DIA has access too?
A previous OIA from Mark Wong confirms that the DIA has the Facebook takedown portal: "Yes, the Department of Internal Affairs has access to Facebook’s takedown portal. "
(https://fyi.org.nz/request/21009/respons...)
The one example I gave was of a FB post about Medsafe which is part of the Ministry of Health. The Ministry of Health said that it does not have access to the takedown portal:
"Manatū Hauora is not using Facebook’s takedown portal and it is not something that Manatū Hauora has access to." (which is in this OIA https://fyi.org.nz/request/21502/respons... )
Kindly answer my request for information please.
Yours sincerely,
Erika Whittome
R S Grant left an annotation ()
Instigated means initiated. They have told they did not initiate the take-down, therefore there is nothing more they can tell you. You have asked what they did in respect of your account. They have told you - they did nothing.
From: Erika Whittome
Dear Emma Atkins,
Kindly share the takedown portal settings on my Facebook account under the official information act.
For example today, I am unable to share a link to the reserve bank consultation page https://consultations.rbnz.govt.nz/money...
The takedown portal clearly has settings on my account because my attempt to share that link above is unsuccessful and gives me this response
“your account is restricted….your account didn’t follow our community standards….”
In comparison, an acquaintance has no error when posting that same consultation link on their Facebook account. Clearly there are specific takedown settings on my account, and I request those settings under this OIA request.
https://consultations.rbnz.govt.nz/money...
Yours sincerely,
Erika Whittome
From: Emma Atkins
Department of Internal Affairs
Kia ora, I am on annual leave until Friday 24 May. Please contact Tanya
Parker if you have anything urgent on Thursday 23 May.
From: Erika Whittome
Dear Department of Internal Affairs,
I have submitted a complaint to the ombudsman today regarding this unanswered OIA
Yours faithfully,
Erika Whittome
From: minadviceteam
Department of Internal Affairs
Kia ora Erika,
As explained in our previous OIA correspondence in the 18 March 2024, 'Te
Tari Taiwhenua | Department of Internal Affairs has no record of any
reporting or referrals about your account, or associated posts to Meta or
any other platform. Because of this, there are no settings or keywords.'
This is still true to this day, and the Department has still no record of
any reporting or referrals about your account.
The 'takedown portal' is called the Meta Reporting tool. This can be used
by the Department to request Facebook (Meta) to check if certain posts
breach the Meta T&Cs, or the fact that the post or account is containing
objectionable/illegal material. This is a 'one-way' system and the
Department are not notified of Meta’s decision. To note again, the
Department has no record of reporting or referrals about your account.
The 'Digital cash in New Zealand | Moni-matihiko' article does not appear
to be objectionable content under the Films, Videos and Publications
Classification Act 1993. The Department would not have reason to report
this to Meta. We are unable to seek information on this from Meta.
As previously advised you will need to communicate with Meta about any
reporting or restrictions on your account. You may find some helpful
information in the following links:
[1]Understanding Facebook Community Standards | Facebook Community
[2]Learn how to share a link on Facebook | Facebook Help Centre
[3]6 Most Common Problems When Posting Links on Facebook and How to Solve
Them - Piar.io Blog
Kind regards,
Ministerial and Official Correspondence Team
References
Visible links
1. https://www.facebook.com/community/using...
2. https://www.facebook.com/help/1929466307...
3. https://piar.io/blog/problems-when-posti...
From: Erika Whittome
Dear minadviceteam,
Thank you for your update. My update 17 March is about how a medsafe safety report was removed from Facebook. Would you care to comment on how a medsafe report which is a crown agency is “objectionable “?
Or would you please transfer this request to the ministry of health, given medafe come under them?
Yours sincerely,
Erika Whittome
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Anna left an annotation ()
I submitted an OIA to the DIA to try and find out if they had any involvement in taking down my personal account (strictly family photos - no social or political commentary on my personal account) for an undefined 'violation.' I was told that my account had not been discussed (which I believe is unlikely). I'm not sure if I got the wording of my OIA right. I will watch yours with interest. Thank you.
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