Facebook parent company reverses stance on Israel-Hamas war videos

Meta’s Oversight Board on Tuesday said two videos removed earlier were valuable for “freedom of expression” and informing people about human suffering on both sides of the war in Gaza. The board criticized Meta’s decision to remove two videos from its platform, one showing Hamas hostages and another showing Palestinian casualties of an Israeli airstrike. Meta had reinstated the videos before the Oversight Board issued its decisions but added warning labels that prevented its algorithm from pushing the videos to viewers.

What did the Oversight Board say, exactly? The board said Meta erred in removing both videos. It applauded Meta’s decision to reinstate both videos with warning labels but criticized the demotion effect the warning labels had on the videos. Meta established the partially independent Oversight Board in 2020 to speed up the appeals process for users challenging the platform’s decisions.

Dig deeper: Read A.S. Ibrahim’s column in WORLD Opinions about the ignorance underpinning a recent TikTok campaign to promote Muslim teachings.