Facebook lifted its ban on a meme mocking the Democratic presidential ticket as characters from the hit movie “Dumb and Dumber” following a ruling by parent Meta’s watchdog board.
Facebook led by Mark Zuckerberg, who famously censored coverage of The Post’s Hunter Biden’s laptop, removed a post in August that erased the faces of Kamala Harris and his nominee Tim Walz in those of the movie stars of the year 1994, Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels.
The elaborate movie poster, which showed Harris and Walz “grabbing each other’s nipples through their clothing,” was flagged for violating Facebook’s anti-harassment and harassment policy, which prohibits “photoshopped or derogatory sexualized drawings.” according to the review of the Supervisory Board.
The user appealed to the Supervisory Board, which reviews Meta’s content moderation decisions. After being approached by the board, Meta returned the post.
The Oversight Board – which triggered a shutdown last month after determining the anti-Israel phrase “From the River to the Sea” does not constitute hate speech – said on Wednesday that the meme was “nothing more than a common satirical image of prominent politicians and is immediately recognized as such.”
The board did not release an image of the user’s original post or meme, but similar versions of the meme matching its description could be seen online.
In its summary of the case, the board cited concerns that Meta’s “over-enforcement” of harassment and intimidation policy in the context of elections “could lead to excessive suppression of political speech and undermine the ability to criticize government officials and politics. candidates, including sarcastically.”
“Protecting the right to free speech of social media users is an essential principle for the Supervisory Board. “The vast majority of our decisions are to ‘give up’ or reinstate content that has been removed from Meta,” Oversight Board co-chair Michael McConnell said in a statement.
“Platforms should be a place where political debate and discussion can flourish, especially during elections, protests and other social movements,” McConnell added. “The board will continue to hold Meta accountable to ensure that its policies and implementation are fairly implemented.”
The Supervisory Board issued a “summary decision” on the case, which is described as a case in which “Meta has changed its original decision on some content after the board brought it to the company’s attention.”
When reached for comment, a Meta spokesperson confirmed that the company has retracted the post.
“We mistakenly removed this post, but reinstated it after the matter was brought to our attention,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
Meta has faced strong criticism for its content moderation practices in recent years.
A contrite Zuckerberg caused an uproar in August after he admitted that the Biden-Harris administration had pressured Facebook to suppress COVID-related content during the height of the pandemic, including memes and light-hearted satire.
Elsewhere, the advisory board, which is funded by Meta but claims to be independent, has recently faced questions about its impartiality.
As The Post reported, some members of the 21-member board had embraced views critical of Israel’s actions in Gaza in recent years.
Last month, the advisory board ruled that Facebook and Instagram users can use the slogan “From River to Sea” as long as they don’t glorify Hamas or call for violence.
The slogan refers to the idea of a Palestinian state spanning all the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea – land currently controlled by Israel.
Several prominent Jewish groups condemned the board’s decision. The Movement Against Anti-Semitism called the designation “absurd” and said it would encourage the spread of anti-Semitism online.
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Image Source : nypost.com