![]() For the company, “the sweating cartoon character in the meme could be reasonably viewed as either condemning or embracing the statements”. ![]() The user also considered Facebook’s policies to be too restrictive.įor its part, Facebook argued that the second statement of the meme (“The Armenians were terrorists that deserved it”) was “a Tier 1 attack under the Hate Speech Community Standard”, since it alleged that a whole ethnic and national group (protected characteristics) were criminals, including terrorists.įacebook considered that the exception “for content that shares hate speech to condemn it or raise awareness of it” should not apply. In its submission to the Board, the affected user claimed “that their comment was not meant to offend but to point out ‘the irony of a particular historical event’”. The Board also examined -through a three-part test- if Facebook’s measure complied with International Human Rights standards on freedom of expression. The Oversight Board analyzed whether Facebook’s decision to remove a comment, including a meme depicting a cartoon character, sweating, with the Turkish flag substituting his head, in front of two buttons “with corresponding statements in English: ‘The Armenian Genocide is a lie’ and ‘The Armenians were terrorists that deserved it’”, complied with the company’s Community Standard on Hate Speech, and its values. On December 24, 2020, the user appealed to the Oversight Board. Facebook never informed the user that it had “upheld the decision to remove their content under a different Community Standard”. For the company, the statement “‘The Armenians were terrorists that deserved it’ specifically violated the prohibition on content claiming that all members of a protected characteristic are criminals, including terrorists”. The user appealed this decision to Facebook, which upheld its decision “but found that the content should have been removed under its Hate Speech policy”. On December 24, 2020, Facebook decided to remove the meme from its platform arguing that it violated their Community Standard on Cruel and Insensitive Content. The comment was reported by a Facebook user in Sri Lanka who considered the content violated the Hate Speech Community Standard. At the time the comment was removed, it had 423 reactions, 260 views and 149 comments. The comment responded to a post with an image “of a person wearing a niqab with overlay text in English: ‘Not all prisoners are behind bars’”. The meme was shared on a public Facebook page “that describes itself as a forum for discussing religious matters from a secular perspective”. In the second panel “there are two red buttons with corresponding statements in English: ‘The Armenian Genocide is a lie’ and ‘The Armenians were terrorists that deserved it.’ The meme was preceded by a ‘thinking face’ emoji”. He seems to be sweating and with his right hand on his head. In the first panel the title character appears with a Turkish flag substituting his face. The meme featured a split screen cartoon. ![]() On December 24, 2020, a Facebook user in the United States posted a comment “with an adaptation of the ‘daily struggle’ or ‘two buttons’ meme”. The Board can also choose to issue recommendations on the company’s content policies. These decisions are binding, unless implementing them could violate the law. The Board has the authority to decide whether Facebook and Instagram should allow or remove content. Both the Board and its administration are funded by an independent trust. *The Oversight Board is a separate entity from Meta and will provide its independent judgment on both individual cases and questions of policy. Likewise, the Board considered that Facebook’s restriction of the user’s freedom of expression was not necessary or proportional, under international human rights standards, since the removed content did not endorse hateful speech against Armenians, on the contrary it criticized said speech. ![]() After analyzing the content as a whole, the Board considered that the comment was of satirical nature, and rather than mock or discriminate against Armenians, the post criticized, and raised awareness about, the Turkish government’s contradictory denialism of the Armenian genocide. Facebook considered that the line “The Armenians were terrorists that deserved it” violated the company’s Hate Speech Community Standard. The meme depicted a cartoon character, sweating, with the Turkish flag substituting his face, in front of two buttons with corresponding statements in English: “The Armenian Genocide is a lie” and “The Armenians were terrorists that deserved it”. On May 22, 2021, the Oversight Board overturned Facebook’s (now Meta) decision to remove a comment on Facebook that included an adaptation of the “two buttons” meme. ![]()
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