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
Last generation' haters tried to eliminate jews and commited hollocost to europe' jews. Over 6 millions executed. The goal of this generation' haters is similar. And the current slogen- from the river to the sea- may lead to an even more terrifing result. Words can kill. Ask Hitler.
"From the RIVER to the SEA" is genocidal hate speech against Israel and the entire global Jewish community. Wake up and educate yourself about the geographic reality of the meaning behind this deplorable slogan.
Your organization has become a major contributor to using "free speech" as a prime tool for increasing the level and frequency of hate speech toward the Jewish nation of Israel and global Jewry.
SHAME ON YOUR ORGANIZATION AND THE PEOPLE YOU ENCOURAGE THROUGH THE PERVERSE USE OF YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA EMPIRE.
Banned by Facebook for sharing a speech by Bibi Netanyahu.
A deep scandal and siding with the Muslim side in a conflict with murderers and rapists.
As a granddaughter of a holocaust surviver, who lost a wife and two young children in Aushwitz, I know we, the Jewish people, must have a land to live. From the river to the sea chants try to take it away from our legite to exist. Zion is where my ancestors used to live till the Romans colonized it, we have all the rights to exist and live in the land of ours ancestors!
From the River to the Sea is not a chant for peace, it’s a genocidal chant for the destruction of Israel and the ethnic cleanliness of Jews.
Many people repeating the chant "From the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free" have no idea what river and what sea they're chanting about, nor what the implications of the chant are. The river is the Jordan, and the sea is the Mediterranean. The slogan means that Palestine will be free of Jews everywhere between those two bodies of water, which is to say everywhere that the modern state of Israel exists. Whether the Jews who live there now are to be "merely" expelled or outright murdered, the chant doesn't specify. Either way, the fulfillment of the slogan entails committing millions of individual crimes.
Facebook has three choices. One is to do nothing and let users keep posting the slogan. That perpetuates the call for the expulsion or killing of the people in a sovereign nation, and is therefore not a just course of action.
A second option is to ban the slogan and all variants of it. That eliminates the particular call for the expulsion or killing of the people in a sovereign nation, but it comes at the expense of Facebook users' desire to express themselves.
A third choice, and the one I recommend, is that whenever a user cites slogans like "From the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free," Facebook should attach an explanation containing the substance of what I said in my opening paragraph. That way everyone who reads a post containing those slogans will know specifically what's being called for: the commission of millions of crimes by expelling or killing the people in a nation. In order to do something about such a dangerous threat, we have to know that the threat is being made and who is making it.
“From the river to the sea” clearly refers to the area to the East of Israel, being the Jordan River, and the sea to the West, being the Mediterranean. The phrase is understood to mean that all the land in between, ie Israel, should cease to exist. It may be that at one time this phrase was generally used for non violent purposes but in recent years, and certainly since Oct 7th, it has been adopted as a violent, aggressive notice of intention and has been used along side chants for intifada etc. It is disingenuous to claim any longer that this phrase is not riddled with malevolence. It is designed to intimidate and harass Israeli and Jewish people and must be designated as hate speech. It has been used too many times now at protests alongside calls for death to Israel and so is tainted beyond repair. It is understood by those chanting or writing it to be a threat against Israel’s very existence and is perceived as such by those it is directed towards. Context is crucial on this instance and therefore it would be shameful of Meta to disregard the clear intention behind the use of this phrase. It is hate speech and must be banned
The brainwashing only started with "form the river to the sea", now it is "no Jew is "safe" or "free" until Palestine is free." These statements are calls for the elimination of Israel and pose threats to Jewish people globally.
From the River to the sea is veiled language for genocide of Jews and serves no good purpose. Only genocide and hate.
By advocating for the destruction of the State of israel from the Mediterranean to the Jordan river , the Jewish population of the Jewish state would be wiped out and replaced in its entirety by an Arab one.
"From the river to the sea" is a call for the genocide (the murder) of all the Jews living in Israel. It is hate speech plain and simple. It should not be permitted in any public forum.
Please stop the genocide hate speeches on META.
From the River to the Sea is a genocidal comment seeking the death of all Jews and other Israeli citizens. There is no place for it anywhere!
This saying calls for the elimination of the Jewish people in the state of Israel, it calls for actual genocide. This has been the end goal for many years and should not be supported or tolerated.
The expression "From the river to the sea" is unequivocally hateful speech. Congress, by a vote of 234-188, has censured Representative Rashida Tlaib for employing it, as it has incited violence in university protests in the U.S. and rallies worldwide. The assertion that the phrase is used to promote the dignity and human rights of Palestinians is merely a facade to conceal its actual purpose. Any social media platform claiming to oppose content that incites violence among individuals should promptly prohibit its use.
I am an author and historian who has researched and published articles and books about the Mideast. The chant: The River to the Sea means only one thing: a genocidal call to erase Israel and murder Jews "wherever we find them." This is out and out hate speech and should not be permitted on any META sites.
The world-wide appeasement of Shia Hamas’s atrocities and kidnappings/hostages of October 7, 2023 in Israel is a result of abject antisemitism, obstructionism, historical denialism, and violent irredentism. It represents a worldwide failure to believe what Hamas, an Iranian proxy and internationally recognized terrorist organization, says, does, and intends to do. This is in spite Hamas’s cynical strategy of utilizing human shields. Hamas’s goal is to maximize the number of Gazans who die and in that way build international pressure until Israel is forced to end the war before Hamas is wiped out. Hamas’s survival depends on support in the court of international opinion, which is overpowering but often wrong. This strategy relies on making this war as bloody as possible for civilians, until Israel is forced to relent, leaving Hamas in power of Gaza.” This is a classic example of how Jewish security choices depend on the disposition of the neighboring population. It shockingly demonstrates how the largest slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust has revived overt worldwide antisemitism that calls for the destruction of Israel and denys Hamas’s atrocities. At this moment, I watch students chanting: Hamas we love you, We support your rockets, Burn Tel Aviv to the ground, We are Hamas, and globalize the Intifada (Leftist version of the Replacement Theory). None of these students are chanting for Hamas to free the hostages. Instead of condemning the carnage, these students blatantly defend Hamas’s actions in the name of the oppressed, although their faces are often covered with keffiyehs. The only issues that matter to these people are those that portray the Jews as the world’s ultimate white oppressors.
Anyone knows that Israel's boundaries are from the Jordan River to the Med. Sea: so that "fr the river to the sea" specifically means the annihilation of the democratic nation of Israel; a sovereign country established by UN vote in 1948--which was then immediately attacked by surrounding Arab countries (not democracies...); though Israel twice agreed to 2 state solutions--the PLO refused.
Time to stop pretending that the old PLO lies and the new lies of pro-Hamas protesters do not advocate genocide of the Israeli people.
The current "crisis" could be over in a second if Hamas returned living hostages and the bodies of dead hostages to Israel; ceased terrorism in the Middle East and world wide; and agreed to living peacefully beside the State of Israel.
How ironic the privileged college students are ignorant.
Or are liars about what this phrase means.
It is not ironic that so many of their professors lead them in this ignorance and hypocrisy: it is disgusting.
Currently, Qatar gives 1 million dollars to NYC public schools K-12.
Follow the money and this current pandemic of antisemitism can be traced.
Israel is located from the river to the sea!
Only in this location we can be free!
When other people want to kill us, they say that they want our country in this location: from the river to the sea.
So please stop them!!!
ومن النهر إلى البحر ومن نهر الأردن إلى نهر الفرات أو نهر دجلة في العراق. غير مناسب للصراع اليهودي العربي
From the river to the sea MUST BE FORBIDDEN TO USE. because it’s actually says that the state of Israel has no right to exist.