Case Summary and Outcome

On March 7, 2024, the Oversight Board issued a summary decision overturning Meta’s original decision to remove a Facebook post of a satirical political cartoon illustrating Afghan women’s oppression under the Taliban regime. Meta initially removed the post for violating its Dangerous Organizations and Individuals policy which prohibited the representation of groups the company designated as linked to offline harm. After the Board notified Meta of the user’s appeal of the original decision, the company reversed its original decision and restored the post. Accordingly, the Board issued this summary decision in which it underlined that enforcement errors such as this one could gravely impact artistic and political expression.

*The Oversight Board is a separate entity from Meta and will provide its independent judgment on both individual cases and questions of policy. Both the Board and its administration are funded by an independent trust. The Board has the authority to decide whether Facebook and Instagram should allow or remove content. The Board issues full decisions and summary decisions. Decisions, except summary decisions, are binding unless implementing them could violate the law. The Board can also choose to issue recommendations on the company’s content policies. Summary decisions are a transparency mechanism, providing information to the public on Meta’s decision making and the Board’s recommendations relating to cases where Meta reversed its original decision on its own accord, after receiving notice from the Board about the appeal.

Facts

In August 2023, a Dutch professional cartoonist posted a cartoon on Facebook depicting a group of distressed women beneath a car crusher carrying three Taliban men. In the background was a meter labeled “oppress-o-meter”, and one of the men was seen pressing a button, causing the crusher to lower. The caption of the cartoon was “2 years of Taliban rule. #Afghanistan #Taliban #women #oppression.”

Meta originally removed the post from Facebook arguing that it violated the Dangerous Organizations and Individuals (DOI) policy, which prohibits representation and support of groups and individuals designated as dangerous by the company. However, the policy permits content reporting on, condemning, or neutrally discussing these designated groups and individuals. The user appealed this decision to the Oversight Board claiming that their post should be allowed under the policy’s allowance for content reporting, condemning, or neutrally discussing dangerous organizations or their activities.

After the Board notified Meta of the appeal, Meta reversed its original decision and restored the post to Facebook. In this context, the Board issued a summary decision.

Decision Overview

The primary issue before the Oversight Board was whether Meta over-enforced its DOI policy—invalidly restricting freedom of expression—by removing from Facebook a post of a cartoon of three Taliban men crushing a group of distressed women and pressing a button connected to a meter labeled “oppress-o-meter.”

In their appeal to the Board, the user clarified that the cartoon was a political satirical commentary on the continued and worsening oppression of women by the Taliban in Afghanistan. On the other hand, Meta reversed its original decision and restored the content after being notified of the appeal by the Board.

The Board noted that this case underlined Meta’s enforcement errors regarding the interpretation of images related to designated organizations and individuals. Furthermore, it expressed concern that the over-enforcement of the DOI policy would stifle political artistic expression, similar to the content at hand.

Moreover, the Board recalled two of its recommendations from the Mention of the Taliban in News Reporting decision. The first recommendation was for Meta to review its human moderators’ accuracy when enforcing the DOI policy to identify and reduce enforcement errors. The second recommendation was for the company to evaluate its high-impact false positive override system ranker to improve prioritizing enforcement errors of the DOI policy allowances. Meta reported progress on the implementation of both recommendations.

Additionally, the Board highlighted its recommendation for Meta to improve its procedures to analyze satirical content appropriately and to provide moderators with adequate resources to be able to do so, as laid out in the “Two-Buttons” Meme decision. Meta reported partial implementation of this policy.

The Oversight Board overturned Meta’s original decision to remove the content and acknowledged Meta’s correction of the initial error. The Board emphasized the importance of implementing the aforementioned recommendations to reduce enforcement errors of the DOI policy.