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2023-044-FB-UA
Today, December 7, 2023, the Oversight Board selected a case to be considered under expedited review, a process by which the board issues accelerated content decisions within 30 days in exceptional circumstances.
The case was appealed by an Instagram user concerning a video that shows what appears to be the aftermath of a strike on a yard outside Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza. The video shows multiple people injured or dead, lying on the ground and/or crying. The Arabic and English caption for the video says this is the hospital after being “Targeted by the intrusive occupation.” The caption also asks “What are you waiting for?” and tags various human rights and news organizations.
Upon initial review, Meta took down this content for violating our policy on Violent and Graphic Content policy, as laid out in the Instagram Community Guidelines and Facebook Community Standards. However, upon additional review, we determined we removed this content in error and reinstated the post with a warning screen.
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.
Case decision
We welcome the Oversight Board’s decision today on this case. Both expression and safety are important to us and the people who use our services. The board overturned Meta’s original decision to take this content down but approved of the subsequent decision to restore the content with a warning screen. Meta previously reinstated this content so no further action will be taken on it.
As explained in our Help Center, some categories of content are not eligible for recommendations and the board disagrees with Meta barring the content in this case from recommendation surfaces. There will be no further updates to this case, as the board did not make any recommendations as part of their decision.
For more information on Meta’s ongoing efforts regarding the Israel-Hamas War, please see our Newsroom post.
