Meta’s Oversight Board Proposes Stricter Regulations on Gender-Based Violence

The Oversight Board of Meta is urging for revisions to the social media company’s guidelines regarding gender-based violence. Alongside reversing the choice to keep a Facebook post that trivialized domestic abuse, the panel has suggested that Meta establish policies that discourage content which promotes or ridicules violence, thereby normalizing it. Furthermore, the board members are requesting Meta to explicitly state that their anti-harassment rules encompass severe physical injuries categorized as “medical conditions.”

The findings are in response to a 2021 Iraq post that “jokes” about a woman who was beaten for making a mistake writing to her husband. The woman in the photo was a Syrian activist, and the post included a hashtag used for pro-women conversations in the country. A Facebook user reported the content three times in February this year, but the report was automatically closed because the complaint was not processed. Meta only removed the post after the supervisory board selected the user’s complaint for review.

The government is concerned that the message would not have violated Meta’s harassment policies if the woman was fictional or could not be identified. What’s more, the post remained untouched for two years and received no human review when it was originally reported earlier this year. That means Meta “does not prioritize” such a breach, according to the government.

We have asked Meta for comments on the decision, including whether it plans to implement the recommendations or not. The company has accepted the Oversight Board’s recommendations in the past, although it has been criticized for an alleged lack of transparency and delays in sharing information.

In recent months, the Supervisory Board has requested significant changes to Meta’s operations. It asked Meta to reconsider its removal of COVID-19 misinformation and has called for more comprehensive rules on adult nudity. In June, the panel even called for Facebook to fire Cambodia’s prime minister for threatening violence against political opponents.