Meta Supervisory Board criticizes its policy of moderation in the war between Israel and Hamas

2023-12-19 20:16:34

He Meta Supervisory Board criticized the social media giant’s platforms on Tuesday for adopting an overly restrictive moderation policy in the context of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.

In response to the “exceptional increase in violent and graphic content on their platforms” following the October 7 attacks, Meta “temporarily lowered the thresholds of automatic classification systems” that identify and eliminate violent content and hate speech, the Meta Supervisory Board explained on its website on Tuesday.

These measures applied to content originating from Israel and Gaza in all languages. «Meta was using its automated tools more aggressively to remove content that may violate your policies», continued the Council.

While recognizing the benefit of this moderation, the Council believes that This policy increased the risk that Meta mistakenly removed content related to the conflict that did not violate their rules.

Currently, when messages or images that potentially violate the Facebook or Instagram regulations, They are quickly removed if they are considered high risk and if they come from unknown users.

The Supervisory Board relied on two cases in particular. One of them refers to a video posted on Facebook that shows a Israeli woman begging her captors not to kill her as she is taken hostage during the Hamas attack on October 7.

The other is a video posted on Instagram, showing what appears to be the consequences of an attack near the Al Shifa hospital in Gaza, during the Israeli ground offensive. This video shows dead or injured Palestinians, including children.

“In both casesthe Council reversed Meta’s initial decision to remove content from its platformsbut approved the company’s subsequent decision to restore the posts with a warning screen,” he explained.

«Given the rapidly changing circumstances and the high risks that the removal of this type of content represents for freedom of expression and access to information, Meta I should have acted faster to adapt their policy,” he also argued.

This body, created in 2020 at the suggestion of Meta director Mark Zuckerberg, is made up of 20 international members, journalists, lawyers, human rights defenders and former political leaders.