Today, October 3, 2024, the Oversight Board selected a case bundle regarding four pieces of content, all of which concern videos posted to Facebook and Instagram of the assassination of José Alfredo Cabrera Barrientos, a mayoral candidate for a municipality in Mexico.
Meta referred the first two cases to the Board. The first case concerns a post shared by a large media organization and includes a caption stating that 23 candidates for political office have been murdered during Mexico’s current election cycle. The second case concerns a post also shared by a large media organization and is accompanied by a caption reporting on a statement from the Governor of Guerrero, in which she condemns the killing and expresses condolences to the family.
The remaining cases were appealed to the Board by Instagram users. The third case concerns a post in which a user reshared content from a different media organization and instructed viewers that an “uncensored” video is available on Telegram. The fourth case concerns a post shared by a media organization accompanied by a caption noting that one of the attackers was shot at the scene and that in addition to the candidate, three others were injured.
The content in the third and fourth cases were removed by Meta for violating our Dangerous Organizations and Individuals policy, as laid out in the Instagram Community Guidelines. Meta determined these two pieces of content did not qualify for a newsworthiness allowance.
We will implement the Board’s decision once it has finished deliberating, and we will update this post accordingly. Please see the board’s website for the decision when they issue it.
We welcome the Oversight Board’s decision today, December 12, 2024, on this case. The Board upheld Meta's decision to leave up the content with warning labels in the first two cases and to remove the content in the third case.
Additionally, the Board overturned Meta’s decision to remove the content in the fourth case. Meta will act to comply with the Board's decision and reinstate the content with a warning screen to Facebook within 7 days.
The Oversight Board reiterated one of their recommendations concerning the use of warning screens for third-party imagery of designated events – first issued in response to the recent Footage of Terrorist Attack in Moscow Bundle. Please refer to the Moscow case page for our initial responses to the Board’s recommendations once we have finished conducting our standard review.