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
People should be free between any river and any sea. Or any mountain and any lake, any desert and any forest. Everyone should be free.
https://jewishcurrents.org/what-does-from-the-river-to-the-sea-really-mean
There's absolutely nothing antisemitic about the phrase 'from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free'. It could be free as a confederated state with Israel, or if Israel stopped trying to ethnically cleanse and stopped their racist policies and entered into talks in good faith with the Palestinian people. Palestine could even be free from the river to the sea with a two state solution (although it's difficult to see how the Palestinians should be expected to trust a state that's been practising genocidal policies against them). This slogan is a cry for freedom from an oppressed people and any attempt to ban it would be profoundly racist.
The phrase “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” is not hate speech. It is stating the geographical boundaries of the currently occupied Palestine state, which is from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. Before the occupation of the state in the 1940s these boundaries were broadly accepted. Unfortunately, Palestine has been under violent military occupation since the 1940s. Palestinians and supporters of their freedom from apartheid have coined this phrase to spread hope that they will one day have their freedoms and livelihoods again in Palestine. It is not calling for the death of anyone in that region. Those who claim this are only doing so to suppress the speech of the occupied in order to keep those in power in power. Those who claim the phrase is antisemitic have no evidence to back this claim. Palestinians are of all religions: Muslims, Christians, Jews, etc. and they have expressed clearly their happiness to live peacefully in Palestine with people of all religions. In order to due so, Palestinians need the military occupation gone and their rights and livelihoods given back that have been taken from them by a violent occupation. This phrase is one of hope and one of history. Historically Palestine’s border is from the river to the sea.
Political freedom and self-determination is a basic right of all people. But Israel's occupation and illegal settlement of the occupied Palestinian Territories denies political freedom and sovereignty to the people of Palestine. The world has repeatedly reaffirmed this by overwhelming votes in the UN General Assembly calling for an end of the occupation.
The chant "From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will Be Free" has been echoing and growing louder the longer this illegal and genocidal occupation continues. When the occupation ends, Palestine will be free. That is the solution to the problem. Censorship is not.
I am a Jewish American who was brought up to believe Zionist ideology, but as I grew older, went to college, read books, and met people different from me, I found out that I was lied to. The phrase “from the river to the sea” means freedom from occupation, freedom from oppression, freedom of expression, and freedom in general for the Palestinian people. It is a call for peace throughout the region and the right to self determination, as enshrined in the UN
Policy Advisory Opinion 2024-05-07
Regarding New Cases on Posts that Include “From the River to the Sea”
Comments Submitted by Tal-Or Cohen Montemayor on behalf of CyberWell Ltd. (CC)
Executive Summary
As the Oversight Board considers recommendations regarding Meta’s policies and practices when addressing content citing the phrase, “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free”, foremost in the deliberations must be consideration for the real-world harm that has been caused and continues to be perpetuated by the use of this term as a call for violence and vandalism against Jewish communities, their institutions, and monuments dedicated to preserving the memory of the Holocaust around the world. CyberWell recommends that, similar to Meta’s approach to the seemingly ‘innocuous’ term “Where we go one, we go all”, the use of “From the River to the Sea” to target and attack Jewish individuals and communities has met a threshold of real-world harm and risk and, as such, should be flagged and actioned as a sensitive term that causes violence until the current wave of the antisemitism against Jews, offline and online, subsides.
Introduction
As a nonprofit organization committed to eradicating online Jew-hatred through driving the enforcement and improvement of community guidelines and safety policies of digital platforms, it is important for CyberWell to provide guidance on this subject, as the phrase “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free” is currently frequently being used as a mobilization cry in various flashpoints of antisemitism and violence against Jews online and in their communities, on college campuses, and against Jewish institutions worldwide.
We further seek to offer solutions rooted in content moderation best practices that balance freedom of expression with Meta’s obligation to protect their users with adequate responses and protocol to prevent the spread of additional violence against Jews. As such, we refer to the actions taken by Meta against a similarly ‘innocuous’ term at scale on Facebook and Instagram, “Where we go one, we go all”, due to the risk of real-world harm, as a framework for sourcing recommended solutions on how to treat “From the River to the Sea”.
Antisemitism Expressed by “From the River to the Sea”
As Jews constitute a protected category on Meta platforms, and as CyberWell’s ongoing methodology focuses on identifying antisemitic content and trends on digital platforms, we first conduct an analysis on “From the River to the Sea” and whether it can hold antisemitic implications. The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism is a consensus definition of anti-Jewish bias that is adopted formally by over 40 countries and over 1,000 universities, municipalities, and sports leagues, and CyberWell uses this definition when analyzing our data.
The implementation of the call to dissolve the State of Israel “From the River to the Sea”, effectively barring Jews from their right to self-determination in their ancestral homeland of modern-day Israel, would be consistent with the seventh example featured in the IHRA working definition.
However, since Meta has not adopted the IHRA working definition in full and the words of this phrase do not explicitly target a protected category of users on Meta’s platforms (i.e. Jews and Israelis), we recognize that it would be difficult to identify this phrase on its own as violating existing digital policy without additional context.
Two examples from the IHRA definition are more appropriate in this case, providing the necessary additional context on when use of this phrase would be a violation of Meta’s existing policies. These include the first example, “calling for, aiding, or justifying the killing or harming of Jews”, and the eleventh example, “Holding Jews responsible for the actions of the State of Israel”.
Weaponizing this phrase, or any other phrase, and using it to harass, target, or commit violence against Jews, would be against Meta’s existing policies, and moreover, would be consistent with real world harms that we see occurring today such as violations of law, proliferation of hate crimes, and danger to public safety.
Real World Harm
During the current unprecedented surge in antisemitism worldwide following the violent October 7 attacks against Israeli civilians, this phrase is being used in just such a way. Synagogues from Philadelphia to Barcelona were vandalized with this phrase. “From the River to the Sea” was spray-painted on the site where the Palestinian terror group, Black September, massacred and took hostage 11 Israelis and a German police officer during the 1972 Munich Olympic games. This phrase was used as a rallying cry in multiple illegal college solidarity encampments when physically restricting, harassing, threatening, spitting on, and physically harming Jewish students, press, and members of the public. It was also chanted as eggs and fireworks were hurled during the opening of the new National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam. The phrase was spay-painted on multiple university and college buildings, properties, and monuments that were sites of the encampments in the US and Europe, with the University of Amsterdam estimating damages of 1.5 million Euros that extended to municipality and public neighborhoods.
As record-numbers of violent antisemitic incidents against Jews continue to soar, including ‘revenge’ murders, kidnappings, and rapes of perceived Jewish people in the name of suffering in Gaza (see cases in UK and France ), it is safe to say that the burden of proof of ‘real world harm’ that would require additional content moderation restrictions around incendiary rallying cries meant for mobilization has been met.
Online Harm
Online antisemitism is cited in multiple surveys as the top form of Jew-hatred that effects Jewish people on a day-to-day basis, causing them fear for their physical safety, depression, lack of sleep, and even causing them to hide their Jewish identity online and offline. The number one social media platform cited by survey participants as where they most experience digital Jew-hatred was Facebook in the American Jewish Council’s State of Online Antisemitism survey in 2023.
While the Oversight Board attempts to offer important guidance on the use of this phrase by bringing content moderation cases for review, these cases do not address the way this phrase is weaponized on Meta’s platforms in the comment section. Aside from the experience of Jewish and Israeli users seeing this phrase calling for the destruction of their homeland normalized on their favorite social media apps, the weaponization of this phrase, alongside the use of the Palestinian flag, the inverted red triangle (violent Hamas propaganda symbol signaling targets for murder), and many pro-Palestinian hashtags that do not inherently violate community standards, are being used to promote online bullying and harassment by flooding the comments section of non-political Jewish and Israeli accounts. This harassment continues with zero systematic intervention on the part of Meta.
Learning from Precedent
In 2019-2020 after the QAnon conspiracy theory became popular online, ‘jumping’ from darker messaging platforms like 4chan to larger mainstream social media platforms via YouTube, such as Facebook, Instagram, and X, companies, including Meta, began taking strong systematic content moderation actions against QAnon-related content and groups, including seemingly ‘innocuous’ and non-violating content like the slogan, “Where we go one, we go all,” and its affiliated hashtag #WWG1WGA, which was often touted by QAnon believers.
Making initial moves against QAnon and militarized Antifa content in August 2020, which was later expanded and formalized to include a new category called militarized social movements, Meta’s removal actions resulted in a total removal of 127,000 Facebook accounts, 8,400 Facebook pages, 32,800 Facebook groups, 47,700 Instagram accounts, and over 1,000 Facebook events between August 2020-October 2022. Meta also targeted over 300 affiliated hashtags across both Facebook and Instagram for enhanced moderation.
In an effort to suggest a framework as to how “From the river to the sea” and other seemingly non-violative content against Israelis should be treated given the unprecedented amount of damage and real world harm that has been caused to Jewish communities, Israeli communities, public institutions, places of worship, and Holocaust memorial sites, CyberWell referred to Meta’s initial statement, “How we address movements and organizations tied to violence,” published on August 19, 2020 (hereinafter: Militarized Groups Approach), and asks the Oversight Board to suggest the same in this case.
The Militarized Groups Approach is meant to be applied to individuals who “Have celebrated violent acts, [and] individual followers with patterns of violent behavior.” This systematic approach was not only applied to the individuals affiliated with these groups, but also to identifiable phrases and hashtags, even when they did not inherently violate community standards.
There is ample evidence to suggest that the current anti-Israel movement is being actively supported by radical militant groups, who are using pro-Palestinian symbols and slogans to perpetuate violence. During the clearing of Columbia University’s solidarity encampment, over half of the arrests made by the NYPD were individuals who were not students or faculty, with law enforcement reporting that many of them were part of known militant activist groups. In Portland, only six of the thirty arrests made at the Portland State University encampment were students. An Antifa affiliated group known as Rachel Corrie’s Ghost Brigade participated in the PSU encampment, encouraged students to throw fireworks at ‘Zionist settlers’, and burned 15 police cars.
The Militarized Groups Approach further imposes restrictions to limit the spread of content from Facebook Pages, Groups, and Instagram accounts where there are discussions of potential violence including the use of veiled language and symbols particular to the movement to do so.
Therefore, CyberWell suggests the following content moderation measures be applied from the Militarized Groups Approach to the phrase “From the River to the Sea” due to real-world harm being committed under this slogan.
• Reduce ranking in news feed
• Reduce in search
• Reviewing related hashtags that are sparking or mobilizing real world harm
• Prohibit use of ads, fundraisers, commerce surfaces and monetization tools when using this phrase
Appendix
IHRA Type 1
1. https://www.facebook.com/rafiq.ibrahim.9849/posts/pfbid021Lgxe4WrG2qW2yJoKj9iKPZukzspVh85442CqrPXEeyCuESftP3UjrtiwsGryF2Ul
2. https://www.facebook.com/100081437006283/videos/2078717669155119/
3. https://www.facebook.com/hani.ayyash.16/posts/pfbid07yKzuqx9Zu8gw3fYxtEcQdx3qvc61ZyYEKCxWMAJ1FWZJNdp82zzvNsVZFqCmSqWl
IHRA Type 11
1. https://www.facebook.com/rahima.ema/posts/pfbid0p7oBgveyLP7cYyA6RyKBtHaBetSvtxTznCShX67qvueSCbcH1DTLifEsgN1Pzmzil
2. https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid035axTxcuNTYNYEd5yAhERLSJJ5bDB223N2jmtW55st2XpFUStLj8i7Grj5wtxoSwSl&id=100090551333293
3. https://www.facebook.com/1169346037/posts/10229418315500206
4. https://www.facebook.com/amit.ruparelia.5/posts/pfbid0msQC4B9AhgqpLaFCq3v11wbjwX9futkm6W68tMrat3rzVjG3Z21wXgSiZ7gzQup9l
Antisemitic comment on a post with the slogan “From the River to the Sea”
1. https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid0YjDhysjEtjj8duna8EMDD8hayX6vgpYgMczFH2Pf6Jj3BdfeW8YRsYFJ311iCsJLl&id=100072649719754&comment_id=943546897776831
To me, the statement “From the river to the sea” is a term to advocate for a one-state solution where Palestinians and Israelis can live in a true democratic society with equal rights for all. I support this statement wholeheartedly and consider it to be the olive branch for the two peoples… any other interpretation is a projection on the part of the war-mongers of this world…
"....from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" calls for the liberation of Palestinians and their right to self determination. These are basic human rights protected under international law and do not pose a threat to any other group. The misrepresentation of this statement by pulling out words from the remaining context is false and incourages harmful propoganda.
I am against all terrorism and violence. It is essential that other voices are allowed. It is becoming a case when nothing can be said about any possible human rights violations by Israel. Any other country would not have this. The palestine people have an enshrined right to exist by UN. The expression from the river to the sea merely reflects palestine's hope for peace and existence not an attack on Israel
From the River to the Sea refers to the pre-colonial boundary of modern Palestine. If thinking through this phrase from the context of other indigenous resistance movements (#landback from sea to shining sea in the case of indigenous peoples of North America, or South African liberation, or ANY other decolonial movement) the term is accurate. It is a fact that the current state of Israel was founded at the cost of the indigenous Palestinian inhabitants, removed by colonial force, who continue to be intentionally exterminated. It is also clear that our platforms are playing a decisive role in a humanitarian context to illustrate the extent of the current genocidal campaign by the Israeli government as well as airing direct statements of genocidal intent.
As Zionism is NOT Judaism, this term is in reference to a specific political and ethnocentric superiority hierarchy widely acknowledged as apartheid.
Removing content using this term would significantly and further limit the ability of human rights defenders globally to advocate for Palestinian liberation aligned to their contemporary state boundaries.
OSB, please contact me for additional information if appropriate or relevant.
From the river to the sea is used by so many people to kndicate that they are looking for a free country, without apartheid, for all. This is an anti-apartheid slogan, and thus banning it supports that status quo.
“From the river to the sea” should be allowed. The phrase is not anti-Semitic and says nothing about Jewish people, just as the civil rights movement in the USA was not anti-white people.
The phrase is a call for peace and justice - for equal rights for Palestinians from the river to the sea, who have existed under the longest military occupation in modern history.
It is an "aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction, or hate” - Rashida Talib, Congresswoman
It is "a demand for democratic coexistence between Jews and Arabs” - American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee
It is a call for "justice, until all people, Israelis and Palestinians, between the river and the sea can live in peaceful liberty” - Andy McDonald, London labor PM
It is a desire for a state in which "Palestinians can live in their homeland as free and equal citizens, neither dominated by others nor dominating them” - Yousef Munayyer, Palestinian-American writer
It is a call for "the return of [5.9 million] refugees who have been kicked out of their homes from 1948 till now." - Rama Al Malah, organizer with Palestinian Youth Movement
From the river to the sea is a liberation phrase that hopes for the end of the oppression of all Palestinians. It is in no way antisemitic as zionists have also ised ot, with the difference that they use it to describe the genocide they will commit against palestinians.
"From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free". That's it, it's simple. There is no hidden meaning. The phrase implies at its emotional root that Palestinians are not currently experiencing freedom to live from the river to the sea, and that their only wish is to be free. The logical conclusion of this phrase is: "Palestine is not free. No matter where we go be it the river or the sea, we are not free. But we will strive for our freedom."
I have seen this phrase being used mostly by human rights activists who are calling for an end to the genocide in Palestine and want a ceasefire. This phrase contains the frustrations that many people feel towards the way that multiple governments are handling this political conflict. To permanently censor this phrase would be to suppress Meta consumers' freedom of expression, which would inevitably decrease trust in the Meta product.
I have personally never seen the phrase being used to incite or justify violence. The people who are using this phrase in fact want the exact opposite, an end to all the violence. They want Palestinians to no longer have to live in constant fear, to no longer have their homes and food and resources be stripped from them.
Similar to Meta, I have seen countless institutions over the last few months take horrifying responses to this phrase and similar sentiments. For example, students at UC Irvine have had an encampment for a few weeks now and are protesting against the university's investments in Israel. These protests have been largely peaceful, but the university chose to respond with extreme aggression, calling in 9 different police departments to intimidate the students who were just trying to express their opinions. Media about these events has largely been circulated on Instagram with captions similar to "From the river to the sea". Who is Meta, as a company, to prevent consumer access to information? To suppress the ability to speak out?
The problem with the phrase "from the river to the sea" is that many people use it without understanding its meaning and the fact that it negates Israel's existence and right to self determniation. Ideally, whenever such a phrase or hashtag is used, it would be helpful if a short two sentence explanation will pop up for the user, making sure they understand and endorse this meaning.
Despite the fact that I am opposed to the phrase, as I am opposed to similar phrases that describe the Jewish aspiration to control the entire land of Israel, as long as it it only expressed as an aspiration, without an active call for violence, transfer, or the such, I believe it should be criticized but not restricted.
Phrases (or mottos) have existed from the beginning of written times. Trying to block a phrase, whether it be political or religious (or both), disrupts the flow of basic human communication. If hate speech isn't being blocked on social media platforms, why would Meta or any of its subsidiaries, go out of their way to block a phrase meant to encourage empathy, understanding and freedom? It's nonsense and a disingenuous move for a platform trying to sustain a global market. If you want to control what is said, take Meta private and accept the fallout from people leaving en masse. From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free. Thank you.
"from the river to the sea" is a call for everyone who lives in that land to be free from violence and to live peacefully with agency. Pretending it is anything other than that is, at best, entirely disingenuous (is "From sea to shining sea" considered a violent message?), and at worst, a racist tactic to silence people seeking peace.
This is a reckless decision by Meta and sets a dangerous precedent. Banning the use of “From the river to the sea” is a baseless action, rooted in Islamophobia. It is one-sided and it limits free speech. I am strongly against this.
The statement “From The River to The Sea” is a call for Palestinian Liberation from the Illegal Apartheid Occupation of Israel, from the River Jordan to the Sea. It is not anti-Semitic and this conflation is violent to not only Palestinians, but also to Jewish people. I descend from Ashkenazi and do not support any such conflation of the use of the phrase as antisemitism. Prior to the Balfour Declaration peoples of many backgrounds and religions lived in the region in peace. It is clear western interests and profits from supposed “resources” such as oil and gas are deeply involved with the genocide and ecocide occurring in Palestine. The future generations of our planet rebuke this violence and will continue to resoundingly call for the Liberation from Israel’s and the United States onslaught of terror From The River to The Sea. It’s deplorable that this propaganda of conflated antisemitism has reached your platform. God have mercy on you and your perpetuation of ignorance.