New Cases Involve Symbols Adopted by Dangerous Organizations
February 13, 2025
Today, the Board is announcing new cases for consideration. As part of this, we invite people and organizations to submit public comments by using the button below.
Case Selection
As we cannot hear every appeal, the Board prioritizes cases that have the potential to affect lots of users around the world, are of critical importance to public discourse or raise important questions about Meta’s policies.
The cases that we are announcing today are:
Symbols Adopted by Dangerous Organizations
2025-015-IG-MR, 2025-016-IG-MR, 2025-017-IG-MR
Meta Referrals
Submit a public comment using the button below
The Oversight Board will address the three cases below together, choosing either to uphold or overturn Meta’s decisions on a case-by-case basis.
Meta has referred three cases to the Board, all involving symbols often used by hate groups, as defined under the Dangerous Organizations and Individuals policy, but which can also have other uses.
In the first case, an image posted to Instagram in April 2016 showed a blonde woman with the bottom half of her face covered by a scarf. The words “Slavic Army” and a kolovrat symbol were superimposed over the face covering. While a kolovrat is a type of swastika and both are used by neo-Nazis, the symbol may also be used by some pagans, without apparent extremist intent. In the post’s caption, the user expressed pride in being Slavic, stating the kolovrat is a symbol of faith, war, peace, hate and love. The user hoped that their “people will wake up” and also stated they would follow “their dreams to the death.”
In the second case, a carousel of selfie photographs posted to Instagram in October 2024 showed a blonde woman in various poses, wearing an iron cross necklace and a T-shirt printed with an AK-47 assault rifle and the words “Defend Europe.” The Fraktur font on the T-shirt is a typeface associated with Nazis and neo-Nazis. The caption contained the Odal (or Othala) rune, part of the runic alphabet used across many parts of Europe until it was replaced by the Latin alphabet in the seventh century. The Odal rune was appropriated by the Nazis and is now used by neo-Nazis and other white supremacists to represent ideas connected to what they describe as the “Aryan race.” The post’s caption also contained the hashtag #DefendEurope as well as a text-based image of a rifle. Defend Europe is a slogan used by white supremacists and other extremist organizations opposing immigration. It is also the name of an organization Meta designates as a hate group under its Dangerous Organizations and Individuals policy.
The third case also concerns a carousel of images. Posted in February 2024, the images are drawings of an Odal rune wrapped around a sword with a quotation about blood and fate by Ernst Jünger, a German author and soldier who fought in the first and second world wars. The caption repeats the quotation before sharing a selective early history of the rune, without mentioning its Nazi and neo-Nazi appropriation. The caption concludes by describing the rune as being about “heritage, homeland, and family” and stating that prints of the image are for sale.
The content in the first two cases was only removed after Meta’s subject matter experts reviewed the posts in November 2024, as part of them being referred to the Board. At this time, Meta also determined that the third post did not breach any of its rules.
In referring these cases to the Board, Meta states they are particularly difficult as the symbols may not explicitly violate the company’s policies but still promote dangerous organizations and individuals. The symbols and others like them are used by members of these groups to identify themselves and to show support for the groups’ objectives. This is a key issue that Meta’s Dangerous Organizations and Individuals policy seeks to address. However, Meta is concerned that prohibiting these symbols entirely could limit discussions of history, linguistics and art.
The Board selected these cases to assess whether Meta’s approach to moderating symbols that may promote dangerous organizations also respects users’ freedom of expression. This case falls within the Board’s strategic priority of Hate Speech Against Marginalized Groups.
The Board would appreciate public comments that address:
- How Meta should treat symbols with different meanings when reviewing at scale, where the review by the company’s subject matter experts is limited.
- The significance and prevalence of both the Odal/Othala rune and the kolovrat, particularly on social media.
- To what degree pagan and runic symbols in general have been appropriated by white supremacists and neo-Nazis, and the extent to which they are still used in non-extremist settings.
- Ways in which neo-Nazi and extremist content is disguised to bypass content moderation on social media.
As part of its decisions, the Board can issue policy recommendations to Meta. While recommendations are not binding, Meta must respond to them within 60 days. As such, the Board welcomes public comments proposing recommendations that are relevant to these cases.
Public Comments
If you or your organization feel you can contribute valuable perspectives that can help with reaching a decision on the case announced today, you can submit your contributions using the button below. Please note that public comments can be provided anonymously. The public comment window is open for 14 days, closing at 23.59 Pacific Standard Time (PST) on Thursday 27 February.
What’s Next
Over the next few weeks, Board Members will be deliberating this case. Once they have reached their decision, we will post it on the Decisions page.
