hashtag which, according to experts consulted by the Board, is primarily used by pages and groups in Syrian conversations supporting women. The post had about 20,000 views and under 1,000 reactions. In February 2023, a Facebook user reported the content three times for violating the Violence and Incitement Community Standard. The reports were closed without human review, leaving the content on the platform. Meta told the Board it considers a series of signals to determine how to prioritize content for human review, which includes the virality of the content and how severe the company considers the violation type. If content is not reviewed within 48 hours, the report is automatically closed. In this case, the content remained on the platform for nearly two years before it was first reported. After it was reported, it was not reviewed by a human reviewer within 48 hours and thus the report was automatically closed. The user who reported the content appealed Meta’s decision to the Oversight Board. As a result of the Board selecting this case, Meta determined that the content violates the Bullying and Harassment policy and removed the post. The Board notes the following context in reaching its decision in this case. This content was posted by a user in Iraq. According to the World Health Organization, some 1.32 million people in Iraq are estimated to be at risk of different forms of gender-based violence. The majority are women and adolescent girls. Despite repeated calls by women’s groups to pass legislation in Iraq to combat domestic violence, a draft law remains stalled, and the current penal code allows for husbands to punish their wives as an exercise of a legal right and provides for lower sentencing for murder when connected to an ‘honour killing.’ The activist depicted in the photograph is from Syria. According to the United Nations, “[o]ver a decade of conflict in Syria has had a significant gendered impact on women and girls.” As many as 7.3 million Syrians, overwhelmingly women and girls, require services related to gender-based violence. An inadequate national legal framework and discriminatory practices are barriers to women’s protection and hinder effective accountability for violence against them. ( UN Syria Report, pages 5-9) The UN reports widespread impunity from prosecution for gender-based violence and stigmatization of victims or survivors of genderbased violence, leading to ostracization and further restrictions on participation in public life. The regime has targeted women associated with the opposition, subjecting them to torture and sexual abuse. A di t t d d t d b UN W l h lf (49 t) f i t t