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
הבטוי מהנהר עד הים הינו בטוי המבטא רצון של חלק מהעולם הערבי,בפרט הפלסטינים, לזרוק את היהודים מארץ ישראל.
מדובר בשטח שבין נהר הירדן לבין הים התיכון בו שוכנת מדינת ישראל.
חלק גדול מהעולם המערבי הלא מוסלמי משתמש בביטוי זה בהפגנות נגד מדיניות ממשלת ישראל מבלי שמבין שהוא קורא למחיקת ישראל מעל פני האדמה.
הוא אינו מבין על איזה נהר ועל איזה ים מדובר ומה ההשלכה הנוראית של ביטוי זה
ולמעשה מעודד אנטישמיות גם אם לא מתכוון לכך
ולכן צריך למחוק ביטוי זה מהלקסיקון.
The term From the River to the Sea is calling for the destruction of Israel, by Genocide or ethnic cleansing. Since it describes the geography of the entire country.
From the river to the sea is a genocidal slogan
The term “From the River to the Sea” is completely unacceptable racist hate speech and should be banned. The Jewish people are not the genocidal ones and should be supported and not chastised with antisemite propaganda.
The slogan from the river to the sea advocates the annihilation of the State of Israel and all its ciizens. A genocide of rhe citizens who live between the Jordan river and the Meditarranean sea. It is not peaceful, does not help anybody, calls for violent destraction and must be outlawed.
"From the river to the sea" is a statement calling for the elimination of the State of Israel and the genocide of all its inhabitants.
As someone born and bred Jewish, bar-mitzvahed at a Conservative temple, and as a constant user of Facebook, I strongly urge you NOT to censor the phrase "From the river to the sea" or the full slogan "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" from posts on Facebook. Despite the claims of some Zionists, those words are in no way anti-semitic and certainly don't call for eliminating Jews from historical Palestine - they simply assert that some way must be found for Palestinians in that region to live in freedom. The words don't specify what form that freedom might take (two states, a single democratic state with equal rights for all, or some kind of confederation) - that's a question to be resolved in future political processes. But to ban the slogan would be to say that Palestinians should not to be free, and I hope that is not a position Meta will take!
This is a phrase used by terrorists to demand the destruction of Israel just because they hate Jews. I’m a US Army veteran and this garbage is the same thing that I went to Afghanistan to fight against. It is an insult to anyone who supports freedom, liberty, and democracy.
From the River to the Sea is a genocidal chant .
This statement calls for murder and genocide of the Jewish nation.
Its objective is clear and should never be allowed to be shared as all other terror declarations.
The meaning of the statement "from the river to the sea" is the murder and genocide of the residents of Israel.
As a concerned user of Facebook, I strongly advocate for the prohibition of the phrase "from the river to the sea" in social posts. This phrase is highly inflammatory and promotes violence by implying the elimination of Israel. It undermines peace efforts and has anti-Semitic connotations, contributing to polarization and division. Allowing its use violates community standards and ignores the responsibility of platform owners to prevent harm. In summary, banning this phrase is crucial for maintaining a safe and inclusive online environment and fostering constructive dialogue.
This phrase clearly means the eradication of Israel, and likely the genocide of its Jews. By contrast, 1.8 Million non-Jews, mostly Arab Muslims live free and largely thrive in Israel. They are doctors, lawyers, techies, etc. They go to school at the finest Universities in Israel right alongside Jews every single day.
Zionism is the national liberation movement of the Jewish people to be free in our ancestral homeland and not live under the systemic oppression of Islam's Dhimmi-Infidel construct which was imposed on Jews in JUDEA and all other Muslim colonies. Similar oppression existed under Roman and Christian occupation of JUDEA, and in their countries, until reformation and enlightenment came to them.
A bit of a history lesson informs the current discussion: The Muslim conquest of JUDEA and the entire Levant was a 634–638 CE invasion by the Rashidun Caliphate. Jews had been fighting the Romans and Byzantines for centuries and were still near a majority when the Muslims invaded. At first the Jews welcomed the Muslims, because the Byzantines were that bad. But it soon became clear that the Muslim invaders were several orders of magnitude worse than even the Byzantines. And since JUDEA was so precious to Jews, Muslims made it a point to be extra oppressive to Jews who tried to remain in JUDEA. Muslims continued to invade past JUDEA across North Africa and into Europe from the South, only stopped at the 732ce Battle of Tours in France, but Muslims Colonists occupied the Iberian Peninsula for 800 Years. That includes Spain and Portugal.
Muslims also invaded north by northwest through the Levant as Muslim invaders tried for centuries, and in 1453 finally succeeded, in sacking Constantinople [now known by its Islamic Colonial name of "Istanbul"] ...they occupied other parts of Eastern Europe for centuries. The Muslim Colonial advance into Europe was finally stopped in 1683 at the Siege of Vienna Austria, and that began the roll back of the Ottoman Muslim Colonies. Greece only got its independence in 1821 after 350 years of Ottoman Muslim Colonial occupation.
In all that time I can count two main Muslim rulers decent to Jews: Saladin and Suleiman. Both invited Jews back to JUDEA, and shortly after both of their deaths, Muslim tyrants of the Mamluks after Saladin, and the tyrant Murad III after Suleiman, reimposed the systemic oppression of the fascist Sharia laws against Jews as lowly dhimmi-infidels. Quite similar to Jim Crow Laws and the Nazi Nuremberg Laws. Right down to the Yellow Star Jews were forced to wear to be easily identified as infidels.
This round of Zionism began during the Crimean Wars in the 1850s when The British and French allied with Ottoman Turkey against Russia. As a condition of that alliance, Turkey was forced to roll back some of the more intolerant fascist tendencies of Sharia law so that non-muslims would have more rights in the Land of Israel. Almost immediately Jews began buying land there again. But This time the Jews formed an Army to break the cycle of slaughter inflicted upon Jews by the whims of various Islamic Rulers over 1300+ years of Islamic Occupation.
I am all for Peace, and I am cautiously optimistic that the Abraham Accords can lead to the Arab countries shepherding the Palestinians to a more peaceful disposition towards Israeli Jews. But it is Islam that now needs reformation and enlightenment, and to accept the responsibility of their brutality towards Jews for centuries. Giving into their genocidal slogans would not be helping them evolve into the 21st century and be decent neighbors, and even decent humans for that matter.
I am not a proficient writer, however when I see there is some type of injustice, I try to express my opinion and in this case, I strongly invite Meta, and the Oversight Board to reconsider any posts having to do, or mentioning, the expression above that has come to plague this modern world in recent months.
As an entity established with the purpose of reviewing and eliminating any type of comments and material that does not comply with the organization's strict rules, this phrase does nothing more than create resent and bitterness to one type of public, which is a growing number, and is primarily used to impose a terribly erroneous mentality and agenda that is promoted by a reduced group of individuals.
I strongly encourage the board to take quick action against this type of publication through your different channels, for the appeasement and status quo of a wider community that does not like to see or participate in this type of abuse and resentment.
The slogan from the river to the sea advocates the annihilation of the State of Israel and all its ciizens. A genocide of rhe citizens who live between the Jordan river and the Meditarranean sea. It is not peaceful, does not help anybody, calls for violent destraction and must be outlawed.
"From the river to the sea" is calling for the genocide of all residents of Israel. Erasing the State of Israel and establishing another Arab state in its place.
The phrase "From the river to the sea" is universally viewed as the genocidal elimination of the Jewish state, and therefore has NO PLACE on a civilized medium like Facebook.
“From the River to the Sea” is a call for the erasure of Jews from their indigenous homeland. Jews are the ethnic group that has longest inhabited the area of modern Israel, long before the Arab expansion, let alone the development of Islam. The chant “from the River to the Sea” is a call to genocide, to murder and replace the Jews and other Israelis who currently live between the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. It is equivalent to saying “all Americans must die”— can you imagine that? There is no way to interpret this call other than as a chant for violence and death to a minority group, one which would never be tolerated against ANY other minority group, and rightfully not. It is not calling for peaceful coexistence or a two state solution, which is why the same protestors will say “we want all of it” and “globalize the intifada”. None of these calls for the murder of a group of people should EVER be tolerated in a civilized society nor on social media.
Accepting these phrases on your platform contributes to violent attacks and deaths of a minority, and if allowed by Meta will result in legal and criminal action against your company. But, the reason to block these phrases is more clearly a moral one. Do what is right and do not spread hatred and violence.
This is pure antisemitism chant.
There's no place for such hate speeches.
Peace need to be promoted over the internet