9 February 2023
45 Pipitea Street, Thorndon, Wel ington 6011
PO Box 805, Wel ington
Phone 04 495 7200
Erika Whittome
Email
[email address]
[FYI request #21503 email]
dia.govt.nz
Dear Erika,
Your Official Information Act 1982 request, reference OIA 22/23-0493
Thank you for your email of 2 January 2023 requesting the fol owing under the Official
Information Act 1982 (the Act) about access to the Facebook takedown portal:
1. Al of the settings in your system (eg screenshots of the settings saved in a word
document)
2. INCLUDING the users and keywords flagged in your system (eg in an excel
spreadsheet)
3. The guidelines and objective documents used to complete the initial set up this
Takedown Portal.
4. This request is for all of 2022 1 Jan - 31 Dec 2022.
I have provided an answer to each of your questions below.
Question one
I can advise that this is not a Te Tari Taiwhenua| The Department of Internal Affairs (Te Tari)
system, it is a Meta / Facebook Reporting system. Te Tari does not have access to the
settings or have the ability to change anything. Te Tari also does not have access to the
backend to see or create a screenshot.
Question two
The system you refer to is a reporting system, not a search system. As outlined above, Te
Tari are using the Meta / Facebook Reporting system to notify of objectionable content and
content related to Terrorist or Violent Extremist Content that breaches Meta / Facebook
Terms and Conditions.
Therefore, questions one and two are refused under section 18(e) of the Act, as the
information does not exist.
Question three
The Meta / Facebook Reporting system was set up by Meta / Facebook. The documents that
are held by Te Tari, provided by Meta/Facebook, in relation to guidelines and other
documents are withheld in full under section 6(b)(i ) of the Act, as the making available of
that information would be likely to prejudice the entrusting of information to the
Government of New Zealand on a basis of confidence by any international organisation.
Additional information
Please see the following link to view Te Tari’s 2021 Transparency Report:
www.dia.govt.nz/Countering-Violent-Extremism. On pages 10 to 20, you will be able to
understand how we get our public reports, non-governmental organisation (NGO) and
government referrals. On page nine, there is an explanation of how the Meta Reporting Tool
is used.
You may be interested to know that Facebook itself has some very comprehensive guidelines
for law enforcement to report content. These can be found on the fol owing link:
www.facebook.com/safety/groups/law/guidelines. Te Tari wil be publishing its second annual transparency report for the year of 2022 at the
end of February 2023, which wil include statistics that may be of interest to you. We publish
this report so that New Zealanders can gauge the value of our work for themselves. The
report for 2022 will be made available here: www.dia.govt.nz/digital-safety-downloadable-
resources.
You have the right, under section 28(3) of the Act, to seek an investigation and review of this
decision by the Office of the Ombudsman. Information is available on the website
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz. Alternatively, you can phone 0800 802 602 or email
[email address].
We intend to publish our response to your request on www.dia.govt.nz. This letter, with
your personal details removed, will be published in its entirety. Publishing responses
increases the availability of information to the public and is consistent with the Act’s
purpose of enabling more effective participation in the making and administration of laws
and policies and promoting the accountability of Ministers and officials.
Yours sincerely
Jeremy Cauchi
Acting Director Ministerial, Monitoring, and Capability
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