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
for me, the meaning of the phrase is the destruction of the state of Israel, the only democracy in the middle east and the only Jewish state in the world.
for an Israeli jew like myself, it means supporting the rockets and suicide bombers against all of us here and the reason there is no two states or a sustainable peace in the region.
it means turning Israel into an islamic sharea state...
To wish for a country (the only jewish country in the world) to dissapear is not the solution of the conflict.
This sentence causes a problematic understanding of the complex situation and should not be used at all!!!
The same as we don't wish for Palestine to dissapear.
There is a problem where anyone but more so public institutions as well as social networks are referring to none existing concepts, described by words, and mostly where these words and concepts are promoting social and cultural negatives, including conflicts and hate leading to wars.
Such words like Palestine, where I was born, was never a nation or people, and "from the river to the sea" is just one of many hatefulness intents of using social networks to be in fact, untisocial.
The sentence"from the river to the sea" is a sweeping statement which regards all the area from the Jordan sea to the Mediterranean as a single unit which should be treated in one way. Whether the statement is "from the river to the sea Palestine should be free" or "from the river to the sea israel should be free" the statement promotes violence and hits all attempts to find solutions that involve sharing the area "from the river to the sea".
Any solution for the israeli Palestinian conflict involves compromise. From the river to the sea, is a statement against compromise and as such essentially a threat to ensure the area is "cleaned" from a certain ethnicity by use of violence.
The violence is not stated outright in the statement, however it is in the subtext unless explicitly stated otherwise.
I hope the oversight board will rule against calls for violence especially in the highly fragile and combustible area of the middle east.
Thank you!
Not true. Offensive. Wrong. Lies.
The phrase should be completely banned and forbidden, in FB and IRL. The call "from the river to the sea" is in fact a call for a 2nd holocaus of the Jewish people. There are only 15 million Jews living today, this number is still LOWER then the amount of jews living in 1939. The fact that ppl are allowed to call for a 2nd holocaust is 100% horrible.
The sentence “from the river to the sea” is being used to express where the Palestinians would like to have a homeland , there is no explanation of peace or negotiations where Israel will be. It is clear that this calls for wiping out the state of Israel.
This is calling for terrorizing the area and no tolerance for peace .
This is calling for war.
This is up scaling violence and hatred in the world against Israel and Jews worldwide and by publishing this saying freely Facebook is legitimatizing and helping to promote this idea!
שלום,
אמירה זו היא אמירה גזענית ואנטישמית.
היא אומרת שאין למדינת ישראל, המדינה היהודית היחידה , זכות להתקיים. היא פוגעת בכל יהודי.
בבקשה הוציאו אותה משימוש.
תודה רבה!
This phrase means that arabs take all israel land, from the jurdan river to the mediterian sea. It means that israel will belong to arabs and the land of the jews will not be any more . I geuss that after israel, they will do it in europe..
This phrase calls for the extinction of Israel and the Jewish people, however also calls for the win of terrorists sadistic rapists over the good of modern society.
If Israel falls into Terrorists Jordan will follow. The Hamas-ISiS sadistic terrorists are gaining power there.
Gaza received indepemdance 2005, enough to invest billions in underground city of terror and send daily missiles, for years, on Israel. Instead of leveraging the development to peace.
These same people target to concure Europe’s and US modern societies and do it with patience, terror cells in each country, initial violence. If Israel falls Europe snd US good people are next. Terrorists with heavy funding are already in your cities.
The state of Israel brought medications, agriculture inventions, solar, hi tech and many good advantages to the world.
Hamas-ISIS brings only death.
The meaning of the sentence: Death to all the Jews who living in Israel, do not give a hand to Hitler's way
This call "from the river to the sea" is actually a call for distruction of the state of Israel. The outcome of such distruction is a barbaric Massacre, rape, Beheading of babies, childrens, elders, women and men a civilions who just want to live in peace in their father's land. The October 7th massacre was just an example of the Hamas and supporters interactions. It was their promises to never stop distroy Israel and repeat attempts to merder Israelis when ever the can.
This call is
The expression calls for the destruction of the Jewish people
The phrase "From the river to the sea" describes the geographic area of Israel. The 2nd part of the phrase is "Palestine would be free" they mean free of Jews. How can one get an area free of an entire population? By killing them, just like Arab Koran says ("killing the infidels"). To recap, the phrase "from the river to the sea" means massacaring the Jews.
This slogan mean erase Israel.
This slogan encourage hate violence and genocide.
I think jews have the rigth to have a country.
"From the river to the sea" implies that they want the whole country of Israel - the only, tiny, place on the planet which was agreed to be dedicated for the Jewish nation after a near- extinction during the Holocaust - to be "freed" from Jews and given to yet another Arab nation. Meaning: this chant calls for a Jewish genocide, so if course it should not be allowed for posting!
The world must get together against terrorism Before it's too late.
This is terrorism.
1.לאחר מה שתושבי ישראל עברו ב7.10, הם לא צריכים לספר ולהגיב על כלום.כי הנפש שבורה חוץ מפיסית גם מורלית
2. המשפט שכל אחד ואחד סתם חוזר עליו מבלי להבין מהו הים ומהו הנהר- סתמי ומפגר
3. עם יהודי הגיע לארץ אז לפני כמה שנים,כאשר ארץ לא היתה מסטדרת בכלל,לא היה בה כלום.רק עם יהודי סידר אותה למופת!!!
אז דיי כבר עם האמרות הללו!
לא מגיע לעם יהודי!!!
השימוש בביטוי ההזוי מדיר את זכותנו וזכות קיומנו במדינת ישראל, שולחת את קיומה ומרמזת על השמדת של מיליונים- יהודים ערבים ונוצרים שהם חלק ממדינת ישראל.
האמירה הינה אמירה אנטישמית, אלימה ולא נתפסת כביטוי שגור