\nColombia\u2019s highest court has ruled that Meta violated a porn star\u2019s right to freedom of expression when it deleted her Instagram account.
\nThe South American nation\u2019s Constitutional Court said on Friday that the tech firm had removed Esperanza G\u00f3mez\u2019s account \u201cwithout a clear and transparent justification\u201d and without offering similar treatment to other, similar accounts.
\nThe 45-year-old, whose account had more than five million followers, is one of Colombia\u2019s best known adult content actresses.
\nMeta argued in the case that she had violated its rules on nudity. The company, which also owns Facebook and WhatsApp, did not immediately react to the ruling.
\nMs G\u00f3mez had alleged that the decision to close her account had affected her ability to work and had been influenced by her pornographic work beyond the platform. She also claimed Meta had not followed due process.
\nIn its ruling, the court said that, while it recognised the social media platform\u2019s need to moderate content, this did not justify closing a porn star\u2019s account \u201cwithout a clear and transparent justification\u201d.
\nIt also found Meta \u201capplied its policies on nudity and sexual services inconsistently\u201d, with other accounts with similar content remaining active.
\nThe court said social media posts were protected under Colombia\u2019s constitution and should only be limited in a proportionate way where necessary.
\nIt ordered Meta to \u201creview and adjust Instagram\u2019s terms of use and privacy policy so that users are clearly aware of the mechanisms for challenging moderation decisions\u201d and \u201cmore precisely define\u201d its rules on implicit sexual content.
\nIf social media platforms use offline activities as a criterion for content moderation, they must clearly state these, the court said.
\nThe court did not specify sanctions for non-compliance, nor whether Ms G\u00f3mez would receive any redress.
\nThe BBC has contacted Meta for comment.
\nIt is not the first time that a South American court has required a social network to change its policies.
\nBrazil\u2019s Supreme Court recent ruled that social media were directly liable for illegal content, including hate speech, and must immediately act to remove it and accounts proliferating it.
\nThat ruling followed a judge ordering the suspension of dozens of X accounts for allegedly spreading disinformation.
\nIt led to the social media platform briefly being banned in Brazil, before it began complying with the ruling and paid a $5.1 (\u00a33.8m) fine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Colombia\u2019s highest court has ruled that Meta violated a porn star\u2019s right to freedom of expression when it deleted her Instagram account. The South American nation\u2019s Constitutional Court said on Friday that the tech firm had removed Esperanza G\u00f3mez\u2019s account \u201cwithout a clear and transparent justification\u201d and without offering similar treatment to other, similar accounts. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":502761,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-502741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n