DUBAI: Meta’s Oversight Board ruled on Wednesday that posts with the phrase “from the river to the sea” do not necessarily violate the company’s policies and therefore should not automatically be removed.
The independent board reviewed three Facebook posts containing the pro-Palestinian phrase. Meta had decided to keep the posts up after users wanted them removed, leading to an appeal.
On Wednesday, the board concluded its review and said it upholds Meta’s decision to leave the posts up. And found that they did not violate the company’s rules on hate speech, violence and incitement, or support of dangerous organizations and individuals.
The three posts contain “contextual signs of solidarity with Palestinians” and “do not glorify or even refer to Hamas, an organization designated as dangerous by Meta,” the board stated.
While a majority of the board believes that the phrase has multiple meanings, a minority believes that its use in a post should “be presumed to constitute glorification of a designated entity, unless there are clear signals to the contrary.”
This minority view was based on the phrase’s presence in the 2017 Hamas charter and in light of the October 2023 attacks.
The board acknowledged that the phrase was often used as a “political call for solidarity, equal rights and self-determination of the Palestinian people, and to end the war in Gaza,” and therefore “cannot be understood as a call to violence against a group.”
It argued that Hamas’ use of the phrase does not make it inherently violent or hateful, and because it is used in a variety of different ways, a “blanket ban” would hinder “protected political speech.”
In addition to upholding Meta’s decision to leave the posts up, the board also advocated for better data access to independently monitor Meta’s moderation.
For example, it said that it used Meta’s public data analysis tool CrowdTangle for some research during the case. Meta discontinued the tool in August and directed users to the Meta Content Library.
The board said it was concerned with “Meta’s decision to shut down the tool while there are questions over the newer Meta Content Library as an adequate replacement.”
In addition, the board recommended that Meta process applications for access to its Content Library in a timely manner and ensure it was a suitable replacement for CrowdTangle.
The board also said the ability to assess the extent of the surge in antisemitic, Islamophobic, racist and hateful content on Meta’s platforms remains limited.
As such, it urged Meta to fully implement a recommendation from consultancy Business for Social Responsibility’s “Human Rights Due Diligence” report.
This states that Meta should “develop a mechanism to track the prevalence of content” which constitutes antisemitic, Islamophobic, anti-Arab, and homophobic attacks.
