The Meta Supervisory Board Asks For Parodi Harris-Walz Posts To Be Allowed

JAKARTA - The Meta Platforms Supervisory Board on Wednesday, October 23 asked the company to maintain a post on Facebook featuring the face of a US presidential candidate from the Democratic Party, Kamala Harris, and her deputy candidate, Tim Walz, who wassupermPPed on a poster of the parody film "Dumb and Dumaber" in which the characters in the poster were seen pinching each other through their clothes.

The council accused Meta of acting too aggressively against a clear political parody. Meta initially deleted the post because it was deemed to have violated rules related to image manipulation that "lowens sexually," but eventually returned it after the council announced that it was examining the case.

Meta told the council that they did not consider pinching someone's nipples through clothes as sexual activity. A Meta spokesperson said the initial decision to remove the post was a mistake caused by "human error."

The council added that this initial abolition showed Meta's tendency to "enforce rules excessively" to satirical and political speeches. The council also said that Meta's failure to handle this case appropriately was initially worrying, especially in the midst of sensitive electoral contexts.

This case highlights the huge challenges facing the world's largest social media platform in moderating content in the midst of US's very hot political environment. Meta, which uses AI technology to enforce its rules, is often criticized because the automated system is considered to have failed to detect context and parody.