Meta's supervisory board reverses removal of two videos related to the conflict between Israel and Hamas
Kyiv • UNN
Meta has changed its decision on content moderation in the conflict between Israel and Hamas. The commission found that two videos were mistakenly removed after Meta adjusted its automated tools to more aggressively monitor content.
Supervisory Board of Meta has published its decision to publish content about the the war between Israel and Hamas. This was reported by UNN with reference to Engadget.
Details
The Supervisory Board of Meta for the first time in its history conducted an expedited review and in 12 days (instead of weeks) (instead of weeks) decided to return two videos related to the the war between Israel and Hamas. The Council overturned the company's initial decision to to remove the two materials.
The Supervisory Board noted that the automation of processes "increased the likelihood of removing valuable posts that inform the world about the human suffering on both sides of the of the conflict in the Middle East".
For its first for its first expedited review, the Board decided to investigate two specific complaints, that users had uploaded in the wake of the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel and the military campaign that Israel launched in response. In one of the videos posted on Facebook, an Israeli female hostage pleads with her captors not to kill her. Another video posted on Instagram shows the aftermath of a strike on the hospital Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza during the Israeli ground offensive. It shows dead and wounded Palestinians, including children.
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The Commission found that the two videos were mistakenly removed after Meta had adjusted its automated tools to more aggressively monitor content after the attacks on Israeli civilians on October 7. For example, the removal of video from Al-Shifa hospital and the rejection of a user's request to restore it restoration occurred without human intervention. Later, both videos were restored with warning screens stating that such content was allowed for the for the purpose of reporting news and raising awareness. The Council expressed concern that a rapid change in the company's approach to moderation could create the impression of arbitrariness and and call into question its policies.
At the same time, Meta downgraded the rating of the content it had recovered. It did not recommend them to other Facebook and Instagram users even after the company determined that they were intended to raise awareness. Some users reported that they were blocked in October, that they were blocked in October after posting content about living conditions in Gaza.
