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
There is no ambiguity that the slogan "From the river to the sea" calls for the destruction of the Sovereign nation Israel and all her people and therefore is hate speech of the worst kind. WW2 was fought to stop this evil. If anyone said the same about any other nation or people group, there would be immediate ramifications. So I implore you to stop this. Thank you.
למעשה הקריאה מהים ועד הנהר הינה קריאה מפורשת להשמדת מדינת ישראל מדינת היהודים. כמוה כמו כל קריאה אנטישמית נגד העם היהודי.
בתור יהודיה אני מרגישה שבכל רגע נתון קוראים להשמיד אותי ויש לזה לגיטימציה. אין לזה אח ורע בהיסטוריה שיאפשרו לקרא להשמדת עם ושמדינה חברתית גדולה ומכובדת תאשר את זה.
The racial phrase advocates for the elimination of Israel, as it implies the entirety of historic Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea becoming a single Palestinian state, thereby denouncing the existence of Israel. This interpretation is seen as problematic because it dismisses the rights and aspirations of Israelis and Jews for self-determination and security. It also perpetuates a zero-sum approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which hinders efforts towards finding a peaceful and equitable resolution.
Facebook, if you want to give Israelis and Palestinians hope for peace - please refrain from using this phrase
From the river To the sea is offensive and hateful. It causes strife and division. This needs to be considered hate speech!
“From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free” is an open call for the complete annihilation of the State of Israel and its citizens. This is 100% genocidal hate speech that advocates for the destruction of the one and only Jewish state and the mass murder of its Jewish population. Jews are an endangered species, as it were.
Globally, there are about 14 million Jews, or 0.175% (1/6 of 1%) of the world’s population. By comparison, of the planet’s 8 billion human population, there are about 2.4 billion (30%) Christians, about 2 billion (25%) Muslims, about 1.2 billion (15%) Hindus, and about 500 million (6%) Buddhists. In the past 100 years, the Muslim population increased 800%, the Hindu population has increased 480%, the Christian population has increased 350%, and the Buddhist population has increased 333%, but the global Jewish population has not experienced even a single percent in population increase.
Jews have been a minority and the target of Anti-Jewish segregation, discrimination, and murderous rampages in every country throughout history. Anti-Jewish laws and biases have prevented Jews from the free exercise of careers, education, politics, property rights, and societal advancement. Even in America, Jews have been attacked, murdered, and lynched, and these attacks and murders continue.
In the Holocaust, 6 million Jews were murdered, which was more than 40% of the total global Jewish population. To put this into a perspective that might be more personal to you, today this would be equivalent to the murder of about 1 billion Christians, or about 800 million Muslims, or about 500 million Hindus, or about 200 million Buddhists. Jewish Holocaust victims were from Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the former Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, all of the former Soviet Union States, Ukraine, and the former Yugoslavia. Before and during the Holocaust, virtually every country, including the U.S., prevented Jews from entering to flee the Holocaust.
Beginning during the Holocaust and continuing for decades after, murderous rampages against Jews occurred in virtually every predominantly Arab and Muslim country, where Jews had lived for millennia. About 1 million Jews were forced to leave their homes. Now, very few or no Jews remain where they once lived in Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Pakistan, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, or Yemen.
Serious and increasing Anti-Jewish sentiment exists among both the political right and the political left in the U.S. Age-old false tropes on the political right blame American Jews for numerous real or perceived ills: the rise of left-wing politics, the rise of minority-Americans, AIDS, Covid, space lasers, etc., premised on the deliberate false conspiracy that somehow 1/6 of 1% of the world’s population both desires to and achieves global control. More recent false tropes on the political left blame American Jews for numerous real or perceived ills: the rise of
right-wing politics, the repression of minority Americans, AIDS, Covid, and for Anti-Jewish prejudice itself, premised on the deliberate false conspiracy that somehow 1/6 of 1% of the world’s population both desires to and achieves global control.
Many on the right and left prejudicially conflate American Jews and Israel, the world’s only Jewish-majority country, as though each American Jew is responsible for global politics. This error makes no more sense than blaming each American Muslim for everything that happens in the 50 Muslim-majority countries in the world or the 31 countries that recognize Islam as their national religion, or blaming each American Christian for everything that happens in the 108 Christian-majority countries in the world or the 34 countries that recognize Christianity as their national religion.
*"From the river to the sea, that's the ONLY flag you'll ever see 🇮🇱!"*
This sentence eliminate the existence of Israel, as a Jewish country.
'From the river to the sea' is a euphemism (indirect code) for 'Destroy Israel.' Please. Don't allow hateful speech calling for the destruction of Israel.
"From the River to the Sea" is a call for genocide -- a call for the destruction and death of the people of Israel, specifically the Jewish people! It is the rallying cry of those who seek to displace Israel (which many won't even name, referring to this 76-year-old sovereign nation only as "the Zionist entity") and who reject any talk of a "two state solution" (i.e., Israel and Palestine).
Allowing posts across Meta that include any form of "From the River to the Sea" — whether as a hashtag, an acronym, or otherwise — will make Meta complicit in encouraging antisemitism that results in violence against Jewish people and everyone who supports Israel's right to exist!
“From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free” is an open call for the complete annihilation of the State of Israel and its citizens. It is used as a rallying call by supporters of terrorism and used to intimidate and threaten Jews worldwide.
The phrase "from the river to the sea" is a direct call to destroy the sttae of Israel and create a palestinian state from the Jordan river to mediterrian sea. This call is anti-semitic, racist and full of hatred and has to be banned.
Quite simply the phrase "From the river to the sea " is showing that the person wants to kill any one living in that area and wants to murder them; that is to say Israelis. There is no other way to interpret it. It should be banned.
My 2 cents "From the River to the Sea is anti-semitic/promotes Jew Hatred. It is promoted by organizations such as Hamas, the PA, Hizbollah, Iran, Syria, etc that seek both the destruction of the Jewish people and/through the destruction of only Jewish state. There is a reason why no Jews live in Middle Eastern countries and it is not because Jews have not lived there. Bavel/Babylon was and is considered nearly as holy as Jerusalem to the Jewish people. Muslim countries countries attempted a genocide on the same par as the Shoa but since Israel existed there was a safe haven for the Jewish people and Mizrahi and Sephardi Jews had a safe place to go to.
Palestinians can and should have there own state if they want one but it cannot cause the the destruction of another. When people say from the River to the Sea they do not recognize that there is are places for the Palestinians to live between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea in oth Gaza and the West Bank. Not only that but Arab Israelis have just as many liberties as Jewish Israelis including but not limited to holding politcal office, holding high paying jobs, choosing what schools to send there kids, etc.
From the River to the Sea is equivilent to the Nazi's call for Liebensraum, which advocating for the destruction of Jews and Eastern Europeans to have more "Living Space" for Germans. I reiterate From the River to the Sea and Liebensraum are calling for the same outcome and should understood as such!"
The phrase “From the river to the sea Palestine will be free “ is a declaration to wipe the democratic state of Israel off the map and annihilate all the people living there.
It is hate speech aimed at the Jewish people and must be banned.
THE STATEMENT FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA SIMPLY MEANS THE ELIMINATION OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL. THAT IS TRUTH. THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE LANGUAGE. PLEASE DO NOT FOOL YOURSELF OR WORSE LOOK FOR EXCUSES TO JUSTIFY YOUR BIAS AGAINST ISRAEL AND THE JEWS. IF THE PALASTENIANS WANTED PEACE IT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED 30 YEARS AGO. THEY WANT IT ALL AND IF THEY COULD THEY WOULD KILL EVERY JEW ON THE PLANET. TRUTH IS TRUTH
The phrase “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free” is the English version of the phrase utilized by American-designated terrorist groups Hamas, PLFP, and others, “From Water to Water, Palestine will be Arab”.
This is an inherent call for ethnic cleansing of the Jewish population of that land; it is clear that the Jews won’t go peacefully—as evidenced by the strong defense they’ve put up since the Holocaust—so this phrase is at its essence a call to violence.
It is an antisemitic charge denying the Jewish right to self-determination, including through the removal of Jews from their ancestral homeland.
This phrase is often accompanied by calls for another “Intifada”, which is yet another call for a prolonging of the terrorist attacks of the past four decades that took the lives of countless babies, children and women in restaurants and buses throughout Israel.
The Palestinian territories are actually practicing apartheid —no Jews are allowed. So the natural consequence of “Palestine extending from River to Sea” means death to all the current Jewish residents. That means another genocide of half of the world’s Jewish population, a repeat of the Holocaust.
This phrase is genocidal and a call to violence. It should not be allowed in any society or any platform.
“From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free” is an open call for the complete annihilation of the State of Israel and its citizens.
This is 100% genocidal hate speech that advocates for the destruction of the one and only Jewish state and the mass murder of its Jewish population.
This statement means the elimination of Israel, the only country for the Jewish people. Do you support another holocaust?
Posts calling for “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” are actually calling for the genocide of the Israeli people and eradication of the Israeli state. It should not be ok to call for the destruction of any group and certainly would never be ok if they were calling for the killing of all gay people for example. Additionally, there is no such country and never been a country called Palestine so it doesn’t even make sense. This is unacceptable and outrageous. I hope you put a stop to this disgusting language.
From “the river to the sea” is not only hatefully ignorant, its intention is to wipe out the entire nation of Israel, including Jews, Muslims, Hindus and many other nationalities and religions. What kind of people call for this type of action? Certainly not people with love and peace in their hearts. And if you allow this type of rhetoric, then you are no better than the vile, pathetic, warped minds and tongues who spew it. Please, take the high road. From the river to the sea…Jews will ALAWAYS be!