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
I found posts that include “from the river to the sea” to be offensive and insulting since their purpose is to deny the existence of the state of Israel.
Against this statement! This sentence in Arabic means that Israel and the Jewish people should be destroyed. In other words, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, only Palestinians should live there. This statement simply calls for genocide Jewish nation.
Please cause “From the river to the sea” to be delineated as hate speech.
As a Jew and a stockholder, I am demanding that you police your website for any and all antisemitic, Jew hating tropes and blood labels, specifically "from the river to the sea" and in general false claims of genocide and withholding of humanitarian aid when it comes to Israel. Your acceptance of these, and other hateful lies perpetuates the false narrative of idiots, murderers and otherwise worthless sheep.
The statement - From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free - Suggests the destruction and elimination of Israel, and the intention for genocide against the Jewish population.
Meta:
The slogan "From the river to the Sea" is intentional hate speech towards Israel.
Please ban it from your platform.
“From the river to the sea” is a call for the genocide of 7 million Jews. Half the world Jewish population and greater than the Holocaust. This should be banned. We would not allow the call for genocide of any other minority.
I find it heartbreaking that the term from the river to the sea is stated to destroy the state of Israel. It is the indigenous home of the Jewish people going back 3500 years. History is ignored when this statement is expressed as before, the state of Israel was reestablished it was colonized by the British, The Ottomans and more before. Israel actually decolonized the land.
The slogan "FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA" calls for the destruction of the state of Israel. It says - from the river to the sea everything will be Palestine. So, there will be no Jewish state of Israel, officially recognized by all international organizations. This is a call for violence and murder that justifies any action against Israelis.
We should forbid using the above term, as most people do not understand that the actual meaning of it is to eradicate the State of Israel.
No way we should allow that!
The slogen from the river to the sea is horrible and unacceptable. It calls for the demolition of the state of Israel, to its disappearance.
It is illegitimate.
And those who say it ignore what started the war between Israel and Hammas, the terrible things they did on October 7th, 2023.
Israel is fighting this terrible and inhuman terror organisation that uses the Gazans as human shields and terrorises them.
As a clear call for genocide, this slogan should be banned by verbal speech as well as typed speech. It is unacceptable and unbelievable this is a discussion at all in 2024!
Calling: "from the river to the sea", has only one meaning = destruction of Israel. It's not ok. It's, and should be treaded as a hate speech.
Israel has the right to exist.
AM ISRAEL HAI
עם ישראל חי
Please help us Jews survive one of the most hateful periods in history by monitoring hate towards Jews and Israel. For example the phrase “From the River to the Sea, …”. This is a call to exterminate the Jews of Israel and is part of a goal to deligitimize the Jewish Ancestral Homeland
This phrase calls to eradicate the state of Israel. It is hateful and should not be allowed on social media
Meta claims to not allow hate speech. Therefore, I implore you to block "from the river to the sea". The reference is from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, meaning the genocide of all Jews in Israel. This is abhorrent!! I certainly hope it is not your policy to promote genocide. thank you.
Jesse Witkoff
"From the River to the Sea" is genocidal. Pro-Palestinian protesters have been chanting "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" after Hamas terrorists invaded Israel, shot and killed Jews, babies, Americans and other people and raped women. From the River to the Sea means that Palestinians want Jews to be removed from the area between the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea to be free.
Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal said, “Palestine is ours from the river to the sea and from the south to the north. “There will be no concession on any inch of the land” in a speech celebrating the 25th anniversary of Hamas' founding.
From the River to the Sea incites violence against Jews.
By "from the river to the sea" the phrase denote all of what is nowadays Israel, and the implication is that this region has to be freed of the people that lives there. Today, people live free there, so the only conclusion posible is that it should be free of jews and anybody who is not muslim.
From the River to the Sea means that all within the geographical location from the Jordan Valley (river) to the Mediterranean Sea all people will be free.
This means all people including Jew, Gentile, Christian, Muslim or Non-believers are free.
Free means free from prejudice, discrimination or hatred whether they be discriminatory laws or practises currently seen as intended to benefit one group over another.
This saying particularly refers to generally acknowledged and manifest apartheid laws including the Nation State Law which defines Israel as “the nation state of the Jews” despite some 20% of the population being non-Jewish.
“From the river to the sea” is pure Jew hatred. It is hate speech calling for the genocide of Israelis and the complete destruction of the tiny country called Israel that is the only true democracy in all of the Middle East. (Of course the river is the Jordan river and the sea is the Mediterranean. Those are the borders of the country of Israel).
So the phrase, from the river to the Palestine will be free - calls for genocide of an entire people and destruction of an entire democratic country. ‘From the river to the sea’ is short hand for the full phrase.
And often pure antisemitic Jew hatred is spewed by those using this phrase. Just look at what is happening now. There is no peace or co-existence with this phrase. This is not a democractic first amendment expression of a belief/wish/opinion. It is hate speech. Hate speech is not protected under the 1st amendment. The phrase is purely a call for violence and genocide.