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 not antisemitic or racist or calling for genocide. It’s a reflection of the Palestinian people’s yearning to be free.
Palestinians deserve to live freely with the human dignity afforded to other people around the world. Enough of the occupation, apartheid, and land theft. There will not be peace, stability and prosperity in that region until it is realized that Palestinians are not being treated justly and are given the right to self-determination.
I don't find this phrase offensive at all. To me it the phrase is referencing the geography of occupied and stolen land by colonial forces that created modern day Israel. It is a cry to free people living under occupation and apartheid in that geography.
To whom it may concern,
I am writing today to stand in favor of the use of the phrase "from the river to the sea." For those of us who use it, it is a call for peace and justice - for equal rights for Palestinians from the river to the sea, who have existed under the longest military occupation in modern history.
It is an "aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction, or hate" - Rashida Talib, Congresswoman
It is "a demand for democratic coexistence between Jews and Arabs" - American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee
It is a call for "justice, until all people, Israelis and Palestinians, between the river and the sea can live in peaceful liberty" - Andy McDonald, London labor PM
It is a desire 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
It is a call for "the return of [5.9 million] refugees who have been kicked out of their homes from 1948 till now." - Rama Al Malah, organizer with Palestinian Youth Movement
This phrase stands in for the clear demands of the Palestinian liberation movement, and it must not be banned or censored to enable continued violence against the Palestinian people.
Thank you
From the River to the Sea is a beautiful phrase with an even more beautiful meaning: it calls for peace and justice for Palestinians whose land has been occupied for over 75 years. They deserve peace, and they deserve justice, regardless of where you stand politically on the Israel/Palestine issue. Please do not ban this phrase.
“FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA”
to say ' from the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free', is the expression of the desire for equal rights, value and citizenship of all peoples in the historic land of Palestine. It is not an expression of genocidal intent towards Jewish peoples.
The phrase "From the river to the sea" has been used by Palestinians to indicated that they have been on the land for thousands of years and long before the Nakba. It is not hate speech in my view.
Facebook is becoming truly EVIL - supporting fake Trump news, taking down/ supressing real news, favoring lies if it gets clicks, supporting Trump and fascism and now this ....Flagging “from the river to the sea” as hate speech will not protect the marginalized, the maligned, or the massacred. But it will muzzle their voices so fewer people are aware of the relentless brutality being visited on Palestine.
“From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will be Free” is not in any way hate speech or anti-Semitic. It is a very clear statement of Palestinian demands for freedom and liberation from the oppression forged by Israel against since 1948. If folks are made uncomfortable by the demands, it is for them to deal with. It is not difficult to learn about the history of Israel and Palestine since 1948 to learn the justice behind Palestinian demands. It is not for Meta/Facebook to censure.
The phrase "from the river to the sea" is not anti semitic and is not a call for violence as some people have tried to claim. It is a call for freedom and the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people in their ancestral lands. The freedom of one group of people doesn't require the destruction of another group.
Free Palestine 🇵🇸.
The only hate is coming from the occupiers.
Stop silencing the voices for freedom. They are not antisemitic! Israel
Is on stolen land and the Palestinians have a right to resist! Free Palestine!
From the river to the sea is a slogan that has been used for the advocacy of a peaceful return for native Palestinians as well as reparations and freedom for these people now and in the future. Regardless of one or two states Palestinians live on both sides and are subjected to second class treatment. Allowing Zionists to recharacterize a peaceful slogan and misrepresent it with the extreme views of groups like Hamas shows how little the western media listens to Palestinian voices nor looks into Palestinian history or social life. Technology companies and academia has followed the media's mischaracterization without a serious challenge, but experts on Palestine are calling out these mistreatments of the Palestinian people and their culture. From the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea is the native land of Palestinians; calling for a return and freedom in that area is not genocidal and should never be censored. Instead of taking Zionists at their word we need to start questioning their genocidal rhetoric and I hope Meta begins to support the Palestinian liberation and other liberation struggles against violent militaries in places like Somalia and the Congo. Do not censor this slogan or posts that repeat it, instead teach yourselves the proper history of Palestine, I beg you. Thank you for your time.
“From the river to the sea” is not a call to violence against Israelis. Like "Black lives matter," it is a call for equal rights for everyone, with a special emphasis on those who are currently most unfairly treated.
Meta, please redirect your efforts toward monitoring white nationalists and neo-Nazis.
I acknowledge that anti-semitism is dangerous and presents a real threat to Jewish communities. But by misrepresenting Palestinian liberation and solidarity as anti-semitism, you are responsible for allowing real white supremacy and anti-semitism to thrive.
Just like emojis have implicit meanings, so too does the genocidal slogan “FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA”. It promotes the destruction of Israel.
Promoting the ‘complete annihilation of a people and the destruction of a nation is hate speech.
See uploaded document: 'StandWithUs Submission to Meta oversight board 20 May 2024'
Dear Meta Oversight Board,
Flagging and removing the phrase “from the river to the sea” will only serve to silence Palestinians, Jewish dissenters in Israel, and those of us around the globe who oppose the Israeli government’s brutal genocide in Gaza. At a time when Palestinians are being massacred and starved to death, it is crucial that calls for liberation and solidarity are heard round the world.
Anti-semitism is a dangerous prejudice that presents online and offline threats to Jewish people. However, Palestinians calling for freedom from Israeli occupation and military violence from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea – the entirety of their ancestral homelands before the 1948 partition – is not an example of anti-semitism, nor of hate speech.
We urge you to maintain Meta’s policy of leaving the posts with the phrase “from the river to the sea” uncensored.
The slogan “FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA” is not hate speech; it is a statement that testifies to the struggle of the Palestinian people against the Israeli government in their battle for equality in the form of a two-state solution. The situation in Israel is no different than in apartheid-era South Africa before F.W. DeKlerk ended that atrocious practice. Thank you for your consideration.