4/10/22, 10:47 Oversight Board | Independent Judgment. Transparency. Legitimacy. Report on Online Content Moderation, A/HRC/38/35, 2018; Equality and non-discrimination: Article 2, para. 1 and Article 26 ( ICCPR); Article 2 and 5, International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination ( ICERD); General Recommendation 35, Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, CERD/C/GC/35, 2013; Responsibilities of businesses: Business, human rights, and conflict-affected regions: towards heightened action report, Report of the UN Working Group on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises ( A/75/212). 5. User submissions The user who reported the content, and appealed to the Board in Croatian, states “[t]he Pied Piper symbolises the Croatian Army, which in 1995 conducted an expulsion of Croatia’s Serbs, portrayed here as rats.” According to this user, Meta did not assess the video correctly. They state that the content represents ethnic hate speech and that it “fosters ethnic and religious hatred in the Balkans.” They also state that “this and many other Croatian portals have been stoking up ethnic intolerance between two peoples who have barely healed wounds of the war the video refers to.” When notified the Board had selected this case, the user who posted the content was invited to provide a statement. An administrator responded that they were a part of the page only as a business associate. 6. Meta’s submissions In the rationale Meta provided to the Board, Meta described its review process for this decision, but focused on explaining why its eventual removal of the content under the Hate Speech policy was justified. After repeated reports, multiple human reviewers found the content nonviolating. Only after the Oversight Board selected the case did the company change its mind. Then, Meta determined that the content did not violate the letter of the hate speech policy, but that it made a “spirit of the policy” decision to remove the content. At this point, the Board informed Meta that it had selected the content for full review. Meta then changed its mind again, this time concluding that the content violated the letter of the policy. Specifically, it stated that it violated the policy line which prohibits content that targets members of a protected group and contains “[d]ehumanizing speech or imagery in the form of comparisons, generalizations, or unqualified behavioral statements (in written or visual form) to or about…[a]nimals that are culturally perceived as intellectually or physically inferior.” In this revised determination, Meta stated that the content was violating as it contained a direct attack against Serbs in Knin by comparing them to rats. Meta explained that its earlier determination that the content only violated the “spirit” of the Hate Speech policy was based on the assumption that the language of the policy did not prohibit attacks against groups on the basis of a protected characteristic identified implicitly. After additional review of this reasoning, Meta “concluded that it is more accurate to say that the policy language also prohibits attacks that implicitly identify” a protected characteristic. Meta stated that its eventual removal was consistent with its values of “Dignity” and “Safety,” when balanced against the value of “Voice.” According to Meta, dehumanizing comparisons of people to animals that are culturally perceived as inferior may contribute to adverse and prejudicial treatment “in social integration, public policy, and other societally-impactful processes at institutional or cultural levels through implicit or explicit discrimination or explicit violence.” Meta added that given the history of ethnic tensions and continuing discrimination against ethnic Serbs in Croatia, the video may contribute to a risk of real-world harm. In this regard, Meta referred to the Board’s “Zwarte Piet” case decision. Meta also stated that the removal was consistent with international human rights standards. According to Meta, its policy was “easily accessible” on Meta’s Transparency Center website. Additionally, the decision to remove the content was legitimate to protect the rights of others from discrimination. Finally, Meta argued that its decision to remove the content was necessary and proportionate because the content “does not allow users to freely connect with others without feeling as if they are being attacked on the basis of who they are” and because of “no less intrusive means available for limiting this content other than removal.” The Board also asked Meta whether this content violated the Violence and Incitement Community Standard. Meta responded that it did not because “the content did not contain threats or statements of intent to commit violence” against ethnic Serbs and “exclusion or expulsion without violence does not constitute a violent threat.” According to Meta, for the content to be removed under this policy “a more overt connection tying the rats in the video to the violent and forcible displacement” of Serbs would be necessary. https://www.oversightboard.com/decision/FB-JRQ1XP2M 6/11