13/3/24, 13:44
Oversight Board | Independent Judgment. Transparency. Legitimacy.
This decision is also available in Armenian and Azerbaijani.
Այս որոշումը հայերեն կարդալու համար սեղմեք այստեղ:
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Case summary
The Oversight Board has upheld Meta’s decision to leave up a Facebook post that included a
video depicting identifiable prisoners of war and add a “mark as disturbing” warning screen to
the video. The Board found that Meta correctly applied a newsworthiness allowance to the post,
which would have otherwise been removed for violating its Coordinating Harm and Promoting
Crime Community Standard. However, the Board recommends that Meta strengthen internal
guidance around reviewing this type of content and develop a protocol for preserving and
sharing evidence of human rights violations with the appropriate authorities.
About the case
In October 2022, a Facebook user posted a video on a page that identifies itself as documenting
alleged war crimes committed by Azerbaijan against Armenians in the context of the NagornoKarabakh conflict. This conflict reignited in September 2020 and escalated into fighting in
Armenia in September 2022, leaving thousands dead, and hundreds of people missing.
The video begins with a user-inserted age warning that it is only suitable for people over the age
of 18, and an English text, which reads “Stop Azerbaijani terror. The world must stop the
aggressors.” The video appears to depict a scene where prisoners of war are being captured.
It shows several people who appear to be Azerbaijani soldiers searching through rubble, with
their faces digitally obscured with black squares. They find people in the rubble who are
described in the caption as Armenian soldiers, whose faces are left unobscured and identifiable.
Some appear to be injured, others appear to be dead. The video ends with an unseen person,
potentially the person filming, continuously shouting curse words and using abusive language in
Russian and Turkish at an injured soldier sitting on the ground.
https://www.oversightboard.com/decision/FB-YLRV35WD/
3/26
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