Case Description
Due to a technical glitch, our public comments portal for cases related to the "From the River to the Sea" phrase closed earlier than planned. To ensure everyone has a chance to share their input, we've reopened it for 24 hours. The portal will now close at 12pm BST on May 23rd.
These three cases concern content decisions made by Meta, all on Facebook, which the Oversight Board intends to address together.
The three posts were shared by different users in November 2023, following the Hamas terrorist attacks of October 7 and the start of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. Each post contains the phrase “From the river to the sea.” All three were reported by users for violating Meta’s Community Standards. The company decided to leave all three posts on Facebook. For each case, the Board will decide whether the content should be removed under Meta’s policies and according to its human rights responsibilities. Numbers of views and reports are correct as of the end of February 2024.
The first case concerns a comment from a Facebook user on another user’s video. The video has a caption encouraging others to “speak up” with numerous hashtags including “#ceasefire” and “#freepalestine.” The comment on the post contains the phrase “FromTheRiverToTheSea” in hashtag form, as well as several additional hashtags including “#DefundIsrael.” The comment had about 3,000 views and was reported seven times by four users. The reports were closed after Meta’s automated systems did not send them for human review within 48 hours.
In the second case, a Facebook user posted what appears to be a generated image of fruit floating on the sea that form the words from the phrase, along with “Palestine will be free.” The post had about 8 million views and was reported 951 times by 937 users. The first report on the post was closed, again because Meta’s automated systems did not send it for human review within 48 hours. Subsequent reports by users were reviewed and assessed as non-violating by human moderators.
In the third case, a Facebook page reshared a post from the page of a community organization in Canada in which a statement from the “founding members” of the organization declared support for “the Palestinian people,” condemning their “senseless slaughter” by the “Zionist State of Israel” and “Zionist Israeli occupiers.” The post ends with the phrase “From The River To The Sea.” This post had less than 1,000 views and was reported by one user. The report was automatically closed.
The Facebook users who reported the content, and subsequently appealed Meta’s decisions to leave up the content to the Board, claimed the phrase was breaking Meta’s rules on Hate Speech, Violence and Incitement or Dangerous Organizations and Individuals. The user who reported the content in the first case stated that the phrase violates Meta’s policies prohibiting content that promotes violence or supports terrorism. The users who reported the content in the second and third cases stated that the phrase constitutes hate speech, is antisemitic and is a call to abolish the state of Israel.
After the Board selected these cases for review, Meta confirmed its original decisions were correct. Meta informed the Board that it analyzed the content under three policies – Violence and Incitement, Hate Speech and Dangerous Organizations and Individuals – and found the posts did not violate any of these policies. Meta explained the company is aware that “From the river to the sea” has a long history and that it had reviewed use of the phrase on its platform after October 7, 2023. After that review, Meta determined that, without additional context, it cannot conclude that “From the river to the sea” constitutes a call to violence or a call for exclusion of any particular group, nor that it is linked exclusively to support for Hamas.
The Board selected these cases to consider how Meta should moderate the use of the phrase given the resurgence in its use after October 7, 2023, and controversies around the phrase’s meaning. On the one hand, the phrase has been used to advocate for the dignity and human rights of Palestinians. On the other hand, it could have antisemitic implications, as claimed by the users who submitted the cases to the Board. This case falls within the Board’s strategic priority of Crisis and Conflict Situations.
The Board would appreciate public comments that address:
- The origin and current uses of the phrase: “From the river to the sea.”
- Research into online trends in content using the phrase.
- Research into any associated online and offline harms from the use of the phrase.
- Meta’s human rights responsibilities in relation to content using the phrase including freedom of expression, freedom of association, and equality and non-discrimination.
- State and institutional (e.g., university) responses to the use of the phrase (e.g., during protests) and the human rights impacts of those responses.
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.
Comments
This phrase is a call for equal rights and dignity under the law. Attempts to discredit or label it as a violent or xenophobic slur are disingenuous and always have been. Censoring this phrase would mark a very, very dark turn for Meta and have wide-ranging implications on your supposed respect of free speech.
For me, it is a call for solidarity with the people who are experiencing genocide under military occupation aided by geopolitical and profit-driven interests from the international community. It is a call for human rights, for life, equality and freedom for everyone (regardeless of nationality, ethnicity, race, gender, age, sexuality, etc.) within the area of occupied Palestine. It is a call to end oppression, apartheid, genocide, war, and militarism. It is a call for ceasefire.
As a mother, witnessing the murder and starvation of children in Gaza, I believe in the freedom and safety of all children from the River to the Sea. And this is exactly what this phrase means. Liberation and safety for all. How can we, as humans disagree with this?
The trauma that hundreds of thousands of children are enduring daily, as they strive to live without basic necessities (shelter, water, food, safety, education) is unforgiveable and we should all stand up and sing From the River to the Sea until these children are safe. They have lost their lives, limbs, siblings, mothers, fathers, homes, everything. How dare we weaponize a phrase that calls for their freedom?
Palestinians have been persecuted, displaced many times over, dispossessed of their land and homes, illegally detained and tortured, terrorized, bombed, murdered, starved, living under an apartheid state or an illegal blockade, for 76 years. We, the people, see through all the tricks, lies, intimidation, and coersion of our leaders and the richest people in the world. We see the truth, that is, oppression occurring on a massive scale that is threatening the lives of over. 2 million Palestinians.
From the River to the Sea is a peaceful way to remind us of a time when Palestinians lived happily and free and a peaceful expression of hope for their liberation and alleviation from suffering in the future.
Dr. Maya Nasser from the University of Arizona, concluding an article on her he history of the phrase “from the river to the sea:” “What Palestinians do want is equal rights. They want to be able work hard to achieve their dreams without being discriminated against. They want to be able to live where they choose without being told they can’t because of their ethnicity or religion. They want to be able to choose the leaders who control their lives.
In other words, they want freedom. And they want that freedom throughout their historic homeland, not just on the 22% that comprise the West Bank and Gaza Strip.”
Imagine calling for the opposite, a country in which Palestine, the Palestinian people, is not free “from the river to the sea.”
https://forward.com/opinion/415250/from-the-river-to-the-sea-doesnt-mean-what-you-think-it-means/
From the River to the Sea is genocidal hate speech. Anyone that says otherwise is willfully ignorant. It is a call to exterminate Jews living in Israel.
I am an Ashkenazi Jew with family who died in the Holocaust. I say loudly and proudly, From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free. It means a free, democratic Palestine, with equal rights for all citizens, including Jews and Arab Palestinians. It means a right of return and reparations for all Palestinian refugees expelled or wronged during the Nakba or the ongoing occupation.
The statement "From The River To The Sea" is a rhyme calling out against genocide. That's it.
To claim it's hate speech is to give people commiting and supporting genocide preferencial treatment over the victims of said genocide and thus is supporting genocide in itself.
To claim this phrase is antisemitic is to accuse all Jewish people of being complicit in Israel's genocide of the people of Palestine, this is antisemitic in itself.
Allowing people to speak out against genocide is the bare minimum and in lieu of doing more Meta should at least provide that.
To accept the censorship of a call for freedom would be normal on this platform, where all anti-genocide speech is being shadow banned. To accept that ”From the river to the sea Palestine will be free” is anti-Jewish is to accept one of the big lies of the Israeli propaganda machine, specifically that FREEDOM for Palestinians means the murder of Jewish people. Indeed, the way the Zionist occupation machine has built not just the narrative but the entire physical environment in the Occupied Territories, freedom for Palestinians is something that the Israeli state on all levels is designed to inhibit. That should not be conducive to people not being able to demand said freedom.
"From the river to the sea" is not antisemitic, the same protest phrase would be used if it were Christians, Hindu, Islamic, or any other religion that was slaughtering starving children in Gaza. This phrase is not targeted at Jew's but to netanyahu, the violent illegal settlers, the IDF and all the organisations and governments supplying money, munitions and support to netanyahu as he murders innocent children. Slán
The phrase “From the river to the sea” expresses the destruction of Israel and annihilation of the Jewish people living in Israel. As such, it is hateful, leaves no room for peace and cannot be treated as a nuanced “depends on context” phrase. Thanks for the opportunity to weigh in on this question.
"From the river to the sea" represents a call for freedom and justice for Palestinians, envisioning a future where Palestinians have equal rights and self-determination across all the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. It emphasises the desire for an end to occupation and inequality, seeking a peaceful resolution that respects the dignity and rights of all people in the region. The apartheid state of Israel tries to ban its use, which is an attack on free speech and a manipulation tactic to portray anyone opposing occupation and genocide as antisemitic or terrorist.
ודאי שמדובר בקריאה אנטישמית שלכאורה עם השנים נירמלו אותה. בסופו של דבר, תוכן הסיסמא הוא קריאה לשחרור פלסטין בכל שטחי מדינת ישראל, קרי מחיקת מדינת ישראל מהמפה.
ברור לכל בר דעת שמחיקת מדינת ישראל מהמפה היא לא רק שנאת יהודים ממש אלא קריאה להשמדת יהודים. לכולם ברור שמדינת ישראל הייתה, הינה ותהיה המקלט ליהודים מפני אנטישמיות בכל מקום בעולם. כמו כן, לא צריך לחקור לעומק מה היה מצבם של היהודים בארצות ערב השונות במאות שקדמו להקמת מדינת ישראל.
משמע, אין כל ספק כי קריאה לשחרור פלסטין מהנהר לים היא בעצם קריאה להשמדת העם היהודי.
אסור לתת לסיסמאות כאלה להישמע.
Chanting from te river to the sea doesn’t imply any violence against anyone.
It’s a chant about freedom and liberation and there are no hidden meanings.
Banishing it, would simply play the game of censorship and would be a big limitation to freedom of speech
Meta.
Even considering censorship of "from the river to the sea" is a deeply harrowing political step to side with an apartheid state that rages genocidal terror over an entire population they diposses, displace, imprison and murder indiscriminately. You will actively agree with these practices, and that's how you will be remembered, forever.
You know very well that "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" is a call for liberation, justice and dignity. It has only ever been violent in the mouths of the colonisers.
Think.
To paraphrase Congresswoman Rashida Talib, it's a call for freedom, peace, and coexistence. It is not a call for hate nor destruction. It is a "demand for democratic coexistence between Jews and Arabs", as stated by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. It's a call for peace between Palestine and Israel!
Stop free speech!
Stop free speech!
I believe that the phrase “from the river to the sea” describes a deep yearning for freedom. It is ridiculous to censor this phrase because it’s not hateful. It’s expressing people’s dreams for belonging and unity.
Hello Oversight Board,
"From the river to the sea" is an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction or hate. It is a call for a state between those borders that exists without relying on the subjugation of others, a country in which no matter your faith, origin, ethnicity, etc., you can live in peace and safety. It is a call for a state in which "Palestinians can live in their homeland as free and equal citizens, neither dominated by others nor dominating them." (Yousef Munayyer, Palestinian-American writer). These posts are the furthest possible thing from hate speech - as a Jewish American living in the UK, I see "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" as a call for the exact things I grew up being told were my own (Jewish) values - healing the world, standing with the oppressed, the liberation of those suffering under a brutal regime. These posts must be allowed to remain on these platforms.
thank you,
Noah Berman