NEW YORK, March 26 (Reuters) - Meta's oversight

board on Tuesday called on the company to end its blanket ban on

the Arabic word "shaheed," or "martyr" in English, after a

year-long review found the Facebook owner's approach was

"overbroad" and had unnecessarily suppressed the speech of

millions of users.

The board, which is funded by Meta but operates

independently, said the social media giant should remove posts

containing the word "shaheed" only when they are linked to clear

signs of violence or if they separately break other Meta rules.

The ruling comes after years of criticism of the company's

handling of content involving the Middle East, including in a

2021 study Meta itself commissioned that found its approach had

an "adverse human rights impact" on Palestinians and other

Arabic-speaking users of its services.

Those criticisms have escalated since the onset of

hostilities between Israel and Hamas in October. Rights groups

have accused Meta of suppressing content supportive of

Palestinians on Facebook and Instagram against the backdrop of a

war that has killed tens of thousands of people in Gaza

following Hamas' deadly raids into Israel on Oct 7.

The Meta Oversight Board reached similar conclusions in its

report on Tuesday, finding Meta's rules on "shaheed" failed to

account for the word's variety of meanings and resulted in the

removal of content not aimed at praising violent actions.

"Meta has been operating under the assumption that

censorship can and will improve safety, but the evidence

suggests that censorship can marginalize whole populations while

not improving safety at all," Oversight Board co-chair Helle

Thorning-Schmidt said in a statement.

Meta currently removes any posts using "shaheed" in

referring to people it designates on its list of "dangerous

organizations and individuals," which includes members of

Islamist militant groups, drug cartels and white supremacist

organizations.

The company says the word constitutes praise for those

entities, which it bans, according to the board's report.

Hamas is among the groups the company designates as a

"dangerous organization."

Meta sought the board's input on the topic last year, after

starting a reassessment of the policy in 2020 but failing to

reach consensus internally, the board said. It revealed in its

request that "shaheed" accounted for more content removals on

its platforms on than any other single word or phrase.

A Meta spokesperson said in a statement that the company

would review the board's feedback and respond within 60 days.

(Reporting by Katie Paul; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)