Two weeks before the U.S. presidential election, the Oversight Committee said it had “serious concerns” about Meta’s content moderation system in the “election context” and said that Meta’s over-enforcement of its rules would “impair political speech.” There is a risk of “excessive deletion.” The recommendation comes as the board considers the case surrounding satirical images of Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
Meta initially deleted a post that showed an edited version of the Dumb and Dumber movie poster that was shared on Facebook in August. The original 1994 movie poster depicts the two main characters grabbing each other’s nipples through their shirts. In the modified version, the actors’ faces were replaced with Harris and Waltz.
According to the oversight committee, Meta noted that its bullying and harassment regulations include a clause prohibiting “derogatory sexual photoshops and drawings.” The social network later restored the post after it brought it to the attention of a supervisory board, and the company admitted that the satirical images did not violate its rules as they did not depict sexual acts.
Despite Meta’s reversal, the board says the incident points to a larger issue with how Meta handles posts featuring election-related content. “This post is nothing more than a commonplace satirical image of a prominent politician and is immediately recognizable,” the committee wrote. “Nevertheless, the company’s failure to recognize the nature of this post and address it accordingly is inconsistent with the systems Meta has in place to effectively determine content in the context of an election such as this.” It raises serious concerns about resources.”
This was an unusually direct criticism from the Oversight Board, which released its analysis of the case in a summary decision that included the group’s typically extensive list of recommendations against social media companies. is not included. The board has previously asked Meta to clarify its rules regarding satirical content, but the lawsuit raises another issue that many of the company’s users have complained about: over-enforcing the rules. It became clear.
“However, in this case, the Commission found that Meta’s bullying and harassment policies were over-enforced when it came to satire and political speech in the form of derogatory depictions of non-sexual political figures. ”, the committee wrote. “Also, excessive enforcement of bullying and harassment policies, especially in election contexts, can lead to excessive removal of political speech and undermine the ability to criticize government officials and political candidates. He also points out the dangers of this in a sarcastic manner.
