ImpACT International | Meta Supervisory Board to Review Facebook “From River to Sea” Decision

The meta “quasi-judicialThe Oversight Board, a group of people from “diverse cultural and professional backgrounds”, announced that it would deliberate on a matter concerning three messages containing the phrase “From the river to the sea”. These posts were not removed by Facebook after a number of users reported the posts for hate speech because they contained the phrase.

In a statement issued by the Oversight Board, it is revealed that three content cases will be examined, all of which contain the phrase, which has been the subject of considerable debate during the ongoing genocide under Israeli occupation in the Gaza strip.

Posts containing this phrase have been the subject of numerous user reports, often citing “hate speech, violation, and incitement.” And “Dangerous Organizations and Individuals” clauses in the Meta Guidelines.

The Oversight Board will review Meta’s decision to maintain these posts because it cannot “conclude that ‘From the River to the Sea’ constitutes a call for violence or a call for the exclusion of a particular group, and not that “it is exclusively linked to supporting Hamas.” The statement underlines that these three positions, as a singular case, fall within the competence of the Council Strategic priorities: “Crisis and conflict situations” prerogative, which concerns how products on its platform “may contribute to armed conflicts, civil unrest and other emergencies”.

The Oversight Board’s statement suggests it will evaluate all three cases, saying that while the phrase “has been used to defend the dignity and human rights of Palestinians,” it “could have anti-Semitic implications.”

The Commission is seeking public input regarding this matter.