gendered stereotypes that are a root cause of violence against women and discrimination). The Board is concerned that Meta’s existing policies do not adequately address content that normalizes gender-based violence by praising it or implying it is deserved. The content analyzed in this case was dealt with under the Bullying and Harassment policy, but this policy is not always adequate to limit the harm caused by material that, by referring more generally to gender-based violence, exacerbates discrimination and the exclusion of women from the public sphere online or offline. This same post would not violate the Bullying and Harassment policy if the woman depicted was not identifiable, or if the same caption had accompanied a picture of a fictional character. According to Meta, this content does not violate the Hate Speech policy because it “does not target a person or people on the basis of their protected characteristic.” This indicates to the Board that there is a gap in existing policies that seems to allow discriminatory content, including content that normalizes gender-based violence, to remain and be shared on the platform. According to Meta, a recent policy development process on praise of violent acts focused heavily on identifying any existing enforcement gaps in treating praise of gender-based violence under various policies. As part of that process, Meta considered the policy on the issue of mocking or joking about gender-based violence. Meta informed the Board that the company determined that the Bullying and Harassment policy generally captures this content. However, as noted in the examples above, the Board finds that existing policies and their enforcement do not necessarily capture all relevant content. According to the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, “[v]iolence against women is a form of discrimination against women and a human rights violation falling under CEDAW” ( A/HRC/38/47, para. 22). Online violence against women includes “any act of gender-based violence against women that is committed, assisted or aggravated in part or fully by the use of ICT…against a woman because she is a woman, or affects women disproportionately” ( A/HRC/38/47, para. 23). The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (UN body of independent experts monitoring the implementation of the Convention) in General Comment 35, called on states to adopt preventive measures, including by encouraging social media companies to strengthen selfregulatory mechanisms “addressing gender-based violence against woman that takes place through their services and platforms” ( CEDAW/C/GC/35, para 30(d)). Content that normalizes gender-based violence by praising it or implying it is logical or deserved validates violence and seeks to intimidate women including women who seek to