thresholds for removal of content during conflict situations. They are, however, not sufficient to protect the ability of users to share content that raises awareness about potential humanrights abuses and violations of humanitarian law, and other critical information in conflict situations. The Board has repeatedly highlighted the need to develop a principled and transparent framework for content moderation during crises and in conflict zones (See Haitian Police Station Video and Tigray Communication Affairs Bureau). It is precisely at times of rapidly changing conflict that large social media companies must devote the resources necessary to ensure that freedom of expression is not needlessly curtailed. At such times, journalistic sources are often subject to physical and other attacks, making news reporting by ordinary citizens on social media especially essential. The Board has also previously observed that in contexts of war or political unrest, there will be more graphic and violent content captured by users and shared on the platform for the purpose of raising awareness of or documenting abuses (See Sudan Graphic Video). In contexts such as the Israel-Gaza conflict, where there is an alarming number of civilians killed or injured, a high proportion of children among them, amid a worsening humanitarian crisis, these kinds of allowances are especially important. While acknowledging Meta’s ongoing policy development process on its Violent and Graphic Content policy, the Board would expect Meta to be ready to rapidly deploy temporary measures to allow this kind of content with warning screens, and not remove it from recommendations. The Board notes that the situation in Gaza at the time this content was posted did not engage the same set of challenges for Meta as the October 7 attacks. In Gaza, there have been difficulties in attaining information from people on the ground, while journalist access to the territory is limited and Internet connectivity has been disrupted. Moreover, unlike the early aftermath of the October 7 attacks, the Gaza situation presented in this case did not involve terrorists using social media to broadcast their atrocities. In the context of armed conflict, by contrast, Meta should be ensuring that its actions are not making it more difficult for people to share content that provides information that raises awareness about harms against civilians, and may be relevant to determining whether violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law have occurred. The question of whether content was shared to raise awareness of or condemn events on the ground should be the starting point for any reviewer assessing such content, and Meta’s automated systems should be designed to avoid incorrectly removing content that should benefit from applicable exceptions.