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 sentence is wrong and dangerous, because it saying that Israel should be eliminated. Israel is the only country for the jewish people and after 2000 years they have the rights to return and build their own country safetly.
The big arabic nation has more then 20 countries around the world and the palestinian people should decide if they want to be part of Israel (more than 20% percent of the Israeli citizen are arabic) or find other place to live (for example, 70% of Jordan citizen are called palestinian)
"From the River to the Sea" MUST be banned. It must be seen as a hate call--a genocidal call to wipe out Israel, to wipe out Jews. Whenever and wherever it is chanted, the calls for intifada follow and countless decades have demonstrated that whenever those calls were chanted by Palestinians, the murderous violence against Israelis--against Jews occurred.
It is not free speech. It is a call to murder. If you do not ban it, you are complicit in the Jew-hatred it has and continues to foment and that will be a stain on you forever.
Dear Oversight Board,
You should be aware of the fact that the words "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" is code for annihilate the country of Israel and all Israelis. It is a chant promoting genocide of the Jewish people and all Israelis. Israel is the country that sits between the river -the Jordan_-and the sea-The Mediterranean Sea. Jewish people have always lived in this area and have maintained a continuous presence in the Land of Israel since time immemorial, before the Arabs arrived in the area and before the advent of Islam and afterwards. And now the anti-Semitic haters and Islamist extremists have popularized a chant that erases all that history and hopes for an end to our history and to us. It is a genocidal chant, based on hatred and ignorance. It promotes the mass murder of all Jews and Israelis and must be banned, just as calls for the mass murder or genocide of any other people would be banned. Please ban this phrase form your forums and refuse to be complicit in the dangerous rise of anti-Semitism. Thank you very much, Cathy Horwitz
The comment "from the river to the sea" is a declaration that the Jews should be eliminated. A call for murder of a complete race of people. This is not free speech. There is a standard limitation to free speech such that calling "fire" in a crowded theatre is not considered free speech. In line with this doctrine, calls for the elimination of Jewish people "from the river to the sea" is even more so not considered free speech. The group of people who started this call for Genocide have already eliminated the Jewish population of the arab countries beginning in 1949. Take them at their words-they are calling for mass murder.
This phrase has always been used as a thinly-veiled call for the destruction of Israel. No other country on earth faces routine calls for its violent annihilation in full accordance with the repugnant charter of Hamas. In no way does this phrase contain meaning that can be construed as consistent with human rights or social justice. It is simply an open expression of support for Hamas and Islamic Jihad, who are recognized as terrorists by the entire Western world and by much of the rest of the word as well, including a growing number of Islamic countries.
Jewish people (including Jesus) have consistently lived in Judaea and Samaria (including Israel) for almost 4,000 years.
Why should it be permitted to call form their irradication?
The phrase “from the river to the sea” should be banned as it’s antisemtic hate speech.
Please delete comments containing “From the river to the sea”. This is antisemitism in that it is calling for the destruction of Israel.
I wish to have it removed as I and members of my family are distressed by it.
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.
The phrase "from the river to the sea" is controversial, particularly in discussions about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It refers to the land from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, which includes Israel and the Palestinian territories. This slogan has historical roots in Palestinian nationalism and has been used by some groups that advocate for a single Palestinian state in the entire area, thereby implying the eradication of Israel as a sovereign nation. This phrase calls for the elimination of Israel. Its association with extremist groups like Hamas, known for violent actions against Israeli civilians, reinforces this perception. While some may use the phrase to express legitimate aspirations for Palestinian statehood, its historical use and political connotations lead to its interpretation as a negation of Israel's right to exist. Thus it belongs to the classification as a hate saying by those who perceive it as advocating for Israel's destruction.
How about this:
From the River to the Sea
ISRAEL WILL ALWAYS BE!
From the River to the Sea has several different meanings:
1. As an Israeli/Jew it means from the River Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea, the historically accurate land of Israel and the 12 tribes of Israel dating back almost 3000 years. The only land that is Jewish, although other religions live there alongside each other, peacefully and with acceptance…There is no hidden or second meaning to this description.
2. As a palestinian/muslim or their supporters, it is a war cry of invasion and genocide, destroying the land of Israel and turning it into an Islamic state, (the 55th one in the world, all taken by force) and forcing everyone in it to bow to Islam, as is well documented by Hamas, a prescribed terrorist organisation. Israel has never been palestinian and indeed historical maps show palestine to be exactly where Gaza is today.
3. Many palestine supporters in university’s and in America it means supporting “2.” Even though for the majority they don’t know what river and they don’t know what sea! Could be the Mississippi to the Sea of the Caribbean! They don’t understand they are condoning forced Islamification as well as the genocide of ALL jews and the destruction of the ONLY Jewish country in the world to help create the 55th Islamic country.…
In summary, the only way this can be dealt with is to ban the phrase as supporting terrorism and genocide as prescribed by HAMAS in the destruction of Israel.
Israelis do not feel the need to say this phrase, it is most often used as a threat by antesemetic people who have no idea of the history of the region as can be shown by the many who think the land of the israelites only landed on this planet in 1948 and that the Jews come from Europe!
Please stop the hate!! Shouting out from the River to the Sea means wiping out Israel from the map - ethnics cleansing !! And killing all Israelis and Jews!! This slogan MUST BE ELIMINATED !! It promotes hate, violence and antisemitism. Thank you
This comment is vehemently and irrefutably anti semitic. If such a comment was made against any other people it wouldn’t be tolerated. It needs to be stopped immediately and the Jewish people and their democracy be protected
From the river to the sea calls to the elimination of Israel the only jewish state!
It calls for the death of the jewish ppl.
With the raise in antisemic all over the world, this expression should be banned as it's a call for violent and murder!
Please remove antisemitic hate speech from Facebook. It should be against community standards to allow the platform to be used to propagate such hatred. Calling for the genocide of all Jews in Israel is BLATANTLY antisemitic and rises to the level of nazism.