Oversight Board Asks Meta Platforms To Evaluate Efforts To Prevent Political Violence On Its Platform

JAKARTA - Oversight Board Meta Platforms has asked the social media companies to evaluate their efforts to prevent the promotion of political violence on their platforms, after allowing videos calling for violence after Brazil's 2022 election to remain online.

On Thursday, June 22, the supervisory board stated that Meta's initial decision to keep the Facebook video available, featuring a Brazilian general calling people to "demonstrate on the streets," raised concerns about the effectiveness of the company's efforts in maintaining election integrity.

"In this case, the intention of the speaker, the content of the speech, its reach, and the possible immediate danger, all confirmed the removal of the post," said Oversight Board, whose recommendations were non-binding for Meta.

After initially allowing the video to remain, Meta deleted it on January 20, after the supervisory board selected the case.

Efforts to prepare for the company's election are in the spotlight as the United States prepares for next year's presidential election.

Meta's Facebook and Instagram, the two most popular social media sites in the world, have previously been used to spread misinformation and provoke violence.

In 2020, the company revealed that its platform was used by a number of Russian groups to influence US voters during the 2016 elections, in which Republican candidate Donald Trump came out victorious.

The company is also among the social media platforms that suspended Trump in 2021 after the deadly riots on Capitol Hill on January 6, concluding that he has provoked violence. The former US president was later restored to the platform earlier this year.

Meta, in its response to the supervisory board, stated that they currently do not have the metric to measure the success of their efforts in maintaining election integrity in general.

The Oversight Board was formed at the end of 2020 to review Facebook and Instagram's decisions regarding the removal or maintenance of certain content, as well as make decisions whether to maintain or cancel the actions of the social media company.