(Bloomberg) — Instagram reversed its decision to remove a post about ayahuasca, a plant-based psychoactive brew used in spiritual ceremonies by indigenous groups in South America, after the Oversight Board of parent Meta called for the social platform to allow for “positive discussion of religious or traditional uses of non-medical drugs.”
In its ruling published Thursday, the Oversight Board also said the company formerly known as Facebook needed to change its rules on regulated goods to better “respect diverse traditional and religious practices” on some non-medical drugs.
“Meta’s rationale does not appear to have taken into account controlled uses of ayahuasca which aim to mitigate health risk,” the Board said.
A spiritual school based in Brazil had appealed to the Oversight Board after Instagram removed one of its posts showing a picture of a dark brown liquid in a jar and two bottles with accompanying Portuguese text saying that ayahuasca was for those who want to “break free.”
The July post had been viewed over 15,500 times with no users reporting the content. However, it was removed by one of Meta’s content moderators after being flagged by the company’s automated systems.
Between July and September, the Oversight Board saw some 339,000 requests from Facebook and Instagram users around the world appealing the company’s decisions, a 64% rise from the previous quarter. The Board overturned four out of six decisions it published in the third quarter.
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