Meta’s oversight committee will consider whether the phrase “from the river to the sea”, frequently chanted by pro-Palestinian protesters, constitutes hate speech and deserves a ban from social media platforms Facebook and Instagram. .
The commission, which operates as an independent commission to decide on controversial issues related to content, is the It said it cited three posts reported by Facebook users following the attack. Died.
The first post includes a video encouraging people to “speak up.” Captions included hashtags such as “#ceasefire,” “#freepalestine,” “#FromTheRiverToTheSea” and “DefundIsrael.”
Another viral post, which has been viewed more than 8 million times, included a generated image of fruit floating in a sea forming the words “Palestine will be free.”
The commission said human moderators who saw the post did not find that it violated the site’s terms of use.
The third flagged post was a reshared item created by a pro-Palestinian group in Canada that condemned the “senseless massacre” by the “Zionist State of Israel” and the “Zionist Israeli occupiers.”
The post ends with the phrase “From the river to the sea.”
All three posts were left by content moderators. Facebook users appealed the decision, and the board will now consider the case.
When the board contacted Meta about the post, the company said it “found that the post did not violate any of these policies.”
“After that review, Mehta stated that without additional context, “From the River to the Sea” does not constitute a call to violence or a call for the exclusion of any particular group, but only relates to support for Hamas. “We find that it is not possible to conclude that the
Supporters of Israel claimed the phrase called for genocide against Jews.
“On the one hand, the term has been used to defend the dignity and human rights of the Palestinian people,” the commission wrote.
“On the other hand, it can have anti-Semitic implications, as the users who filed the lawsuit with the board allege.”
The board invited the public to submit comments regarding the phrase.
Meta is required to be mindful of the Board’s decisions regarding specific content decisions, but is not obligated to follow the Board’s broad recommendations.
In December, the commission ruled that Facebook should reverse its decision to remove a post that showed graphic footage of both Israeli and Palestinian casualties in the ongoing war.
In some cases, Instagram removed videos showing what appeared to be the aftermath of strikes at or near Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, the commission said.
The posts show Palestinians, including children, being injured or killed. Meta’s automated system removed the post for violating its rules against violent and graphic content.
Meta ultimately reversed its decision, but placed a warning screen on the post and demoted it, according to the board. This means that your posts are no longer recommended by users, and fewer people see them.
The board said it disagreed with the decision to demote the video.
The other incident concerns a video posted on Facebook showing an Israeli woman taken hostage during a Hamas raid on Israel on October 7, pleading with her kidnappers not to kill her. .
with post wire
