13/3/24, 13:44 , Oversight Board | Independent Judgment. Transparency. Legitimacy. those teams. These teams are able to consider contextual factors outside of the content to decide an enforcement action. Content would only be removed through automation if it is identical or near identical to content Meta’s internal teams have already assessed as violating and added to media matching banks. In response to the Board’s questions, Meta confirmed that the additional context it considered to identify the content as violating in this case included (i) the uniforms confirmed the identifiable prisoners were Armenian soldiers, and (ii) knowledge of the ongoing conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia. “Prisoner of war” is defined in internal guidance for reviewers called the Known Questions as “a member of the armed forces who has been captured or fallen into the hands of an opposing power during or immediately after an armed conflict.” In the Internal Implementation Standards accompanying this rule, Meta explains that content which exposes a prisoner of war’s identity or location by sharing either the first name, last name, their identification number, and/or imagery identifying their face, even if it is shared with “a condemning or raising awareness context,” should be removed. In response to the Board’s questions, Meta noted that the Crisis Policy Protocol, was not used during the second Nagorno-Karabakh war or the ongoing border clashes between Azerbaijan and Armenia. The Crisis Policy Protocol provides Meta review teams with additional opportunities to apply escalation-only policies, and was created in response to the Board’s recommendation in the “former President Trump’s suspension” case. Meta explained that as there is a permanent policy to remove content outing prisoners of war, the standard process of the internal escalations team removing this content would not have changed had the protocol been activated. On applying the newsworthiness allowance, Meta says it conducted a balancing test that weighs the public interest against the risk of harm, considering several factors: (i) whether the content surfaces imminent threats to public health or safety; (ii) whether the content gives voice to perspectives currently being debated as part of a political process; (iii) the nature of the speech, including whether it relates to governance or politics; (iv) the political structure of the country, including whether it has a free press; and (v) other country-specific circumstances (for example, whether there is an election underway, or the country is at war). Meta recognized the graphic nature of this video and the risks that prisoners of war may face https://www.oversightboard.com/decision/FB-YLRV35WD/ 12/26