Meta’s Oversight Board takes on the Israel-Hamas War

Today let’s talk about the Oversight Board’s move to weigh in on the ongoing controversy about how Meta is moderating content related to the war between Israel and Hamas. The board is making an effort to show that it can prove useful during an unfolding crisis. But given the speed and scale of the conflict — and Meta’s cool reception to many of the board’s recent ideas — it’s unclear whether the result will go much beyond restoring a couple of posts to Facebook and Instagram.

On Thursday the Oversight Board, a Meta-funded but independent body that is empowered to make binding decisions about whether posts on the company’s apps should come down or stay up, announced it would take two cases stemming from the Israel-Hamas war. For the first time, the board said it would conduct its review on an expedited basis — meaning that its decision could come in as soon as 48 hours, and up to 30 days. (Regular decisions typically take the board about three months.) 

The first case selected today concerns an Instagram post:

[It] includes a video showing what appears to be the aftermath of a strike on a yard outside Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. The content, which was posted on Instagram in early November, shows people, including children, injured or dead, lying on the ground and/or crying. A caption in Arabic and English below the video states that the hospital has been targeted by the “usurping occupation,” a reference to the Israeli army, and tags human rights and news organizations. Meta initially removed the post for violating its rules on violent and graphic content. 

The second is a Facebook post.

[It] shows a woman begging her kidnappers not to kill her as she is taken hostage and driven away on a motorbike. The woman is seen sitting on the back of the motorbike, reaching out and pleading for her life. The video then shows a man, who appears to be another hostage, being marched away by captors. In a caption, the user who posted the content describes the kidnappers as Hamas militants and urges people to watch the video to gain a “deeper understanding” of the horror that Israel woke up to on October 7, 2023. The user posted the content around a week after the