The Platform's Meta Supervisory Board Considers There Was An Error In The Elimination Of Israeli-Hamas Conflict Videos

JAKARTA - The Meta Platform Supervisory Board announced on Tuesday 19 December that the social media company made a mistake by removing two videos showing hostages and injured people in the Israeli-Hamas conflict. The council states that the video has value to understand human suffering in war.

Since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, social media platforms have been in the spotlight again regarding their content moderation practices due to the surge in disinformation and allegations that the companies are promoting certain views on the conflict.

Videos of the conflict are the first time the Supervisory Board, an independent agency reviewing content decisions on Meta's Facebook and Instagram, has tested cases in a faster way. The board announced a faster review process earlier this year to respond more quickly to urgent events.

One of the cases involved a video posted on Instagram, which showed aftermath of airstrikes near Al Shifa hospital in Gaza, including children injured or killed.

The second case involved a video of an October 7 attack, showing an Israeli woman begging her kidnappers not to kill her while she was being held hostage.

In both cases, after the Supervisory Board selected the removal of content for review, Meta overturned its decision and returned the video with a warning screen to the audience before watching, the board stated.

The board expressed its approval of the move to restore content, but disagreed with Meta's decision to limit videos from being recommended to users, and in a statement urged Meta to "response more quickly to changes in the situation on the ground, affecting the balance between sound and safety values."

The Meta spokesperson stated that the company welcomed the board's decision, adding that no further action would be taken on these cases because the council did not make any policy recommendations.