Footage of Terrorist Attack in Moscow Bundle

UPDATED

DEC 3, 2024

2024-038-FB-UA, 2024-039-FB-UA, 2024-040-FB-UA

Today, July 11, 2024, the Oversight Board selected a case bundle appealed by Facebook users regarding three pieces of content. Each piece of content contains a video that depicts the moment of a terrorist attack on visible victims at a concert venue in Moscow with a caption that condemns the attack or expresses support for the victims.

In each instance, Meta took down this content for violating our Dangerous Organizations and Individuals policy, as laid out in the Facebook Community Standards.

Under our Dangerous Organizations and Individuals policy, “we do not allow content that glorifies, supports, or represents events that Meta designates as violating violent events.” Meta internally designated the Moscow attack as a violating violent event (a terrorist attack) on March 22, 2024. As a result, this means we remove “any third party imagery depicting the moment of the attack on visible victims,” even if shared to raise awareness, neutrally discuss, or condemn the attack.

We will implement the board’s decision once it has finished deliberating, and will update this post accordingly. Please see the Board's website for the decision when they issue it.

Case decision

We welcome the Oversight Board’s decision today, November 19, 2024, on this case. The Board overturned Meta’s decisions to remove all three pieces of content. Meta will act to comply with the Board's decision and reinstate the content with warning screens to Facebook within 7 days.

After conducting a review of the recommendations provided by the Board, we will update this post with initial responses to those recommendations.