p 13/3/24, 13:44 q p y pp y g g Oversight Board | Independent Judgment. Transparency. Legitimacy. g p and violent content are sufficiently clear to govern the content in this case. At the same time, Meta’s public explanations of the newsworthiness allowance could provide further detail on how it may apply to content revealing the identity of prisoners of war. Of the three examples of content where a newsworthiness allowance was applied, illustrating Meta’s approach to newsworthy content, none concern the Coordinating Harm and Promoting Crime Community Standard. While one example relates to a conflict situation, the criteria or factors particular to conflict could be more comprehensively made public as part of the explanations of the underlying policy rules. In response to Board’s prior recommendations, Meta has already provided more clarity around the newsworthiness allowance, including through adding information to its public explanation of the newsworthiness allowance as to when it will apply a warning screen (“Sudan graphic video,” recommendation no. 2), and linking the public explanation to the landing page of the Community Standards and adding examples to the newsworthiness page, including about protests (“Colombia protests,” recommendation no. 2). The Board stresses the importance of enhanced transparency and guidance to users, especially in crisis and conflict situations. II. Legitimate aim a. The Community Standard prohibiting depictions of identifiable prisoners of war Respecting the rights of others, including the right to life, privacy, and protection from torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment, is a legitimate aim for restrictions on the right to freedom of expression (Article 19, para. 3, ICCPR). In this case, the assessment of the legitimacy of the aim underlying the prohibition on depicting identifiable prisoners of war is informed by the situation of armed conflict and the more specific rules of international humanitarian law which call for the protection of the life, privacy and dignity of prisoners of war, when the content exposes prisoners of war to “insult” and “public curiosity” (Article 13, para. 2 of the Geneva Convention (III)). In the context of an armed conflict, Article 13 of the Geneva Convention III provides protection for the humane treatment of prisoners of war, and Meta’s general rule coupled with the availability of the newsworthiness allowance supports that function. In addition to potential offline violence, the sharing of the images themselves can be humiliating and violate the detainees’ right to https://www.oversightboard.com/decision/FB-YLRV35WD/ 20/26