Meta’s independent Oversight Board announced on Thursday that it will examine the way the company has handled violent content on its social media platforms in two instances involving hostage-taking and bombings in the Israel-Hamas war.
These cases will be the first to take advantage of a new expedited review process that was introduced earlier this year and calls for a 30-day decision-making period from the board. Typically, the board considers each issue for several months.
The board decided to take on the cases because of the deluge of violent, hostile, and false content on social media regarding the two-month-old conflict between Israel and Hamas, the Islamist movement in Gaza that carried out the attack on Israeli cities on October 7 that ignited the conflict.
Following the attack, Meta momentarily relaxed its standards for eliminating potentially dangerous content, including as postings that prominently featured Hamas hostages.
Additionally, the business has been accused of stifling remarks made in support of Palestinians residing in Gaza under Israel’s military occupation.
The board stated that Meta removed a video from Instagram that depicted the aftermath of an explosion at the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, which included both dead and injured children. This is one of the cases that will be examined by the board.
The largest hospital in the Palestinian Territories, it has been the target of war crimes allegations from both sides of the fighting.
The board chose the case for review, and Meta restored the content with a warning screen.
In the other case, a woman is seen being driven away on a motorcycle while pleading with her captors not to kill her in a Facebook video. The board urged in a caption that people should spread the word about what happened on October 7.
The board claims that after Meta removed the video at first, it changed its mind a few weeks later in reaction to the increasing popularity of hostage kidnapping videos.
The board stated that it was restored with a warning screen, much as the video in the first instance.
Meta issued a statement expressing its gratitude for the Oversight Board’s review and its commitment to implementing its ruling in every instance.
