The oversight team, an independent board of advisors that weighs in on how Meta’s community standards and guidelines are applied, published decisions this week over how Meta responded in 11 cases, including a “comment targeting people with Down syndrome,” “posts supporting [United Kingdom] riots,” and more.
Paolo Carozza, the Meta advisory board co-chairman, shared in an interview with the Washington Examiner that the board doesn’t want to censor content but will do so when a “substantial connection to tangible harm” is seen.
“If there’s a direct and likely causation of a certain kind of real-world harm from the speech attacking other people physically, then we would draw the line,” Carozza said, referencing the board’s ruling on banning posts in support of the U.K. riots against Muslim migrants.
The Meta advisory board maintained it wants to protect the integrity of free speech wherever possible, largely ruling that comments with a “provocative nature,” such as discussing transgender people’s access to bathrooms and participation in athletics, are allowed.
“Freedom of speech is bigger than a partisan political divide. It’s not an issue that’s just about protecting, you know, ideas from one side of the spectrum versus the other,” Carozza said. “It’s got to cut both ways. It has to be protective of people, you know, who bring conservative points of view. It’s got to be protective of people who bring progressive points of view, because that’s what freedom of speech is about.”
The board also ruled that it was not a violation in community notes for a drag performer to use a word known for its anti-LGBT origins, since it wasn’t used in a negative connotation. Still, Carozza admitted determining a post’s connotation can be tricky.
“We’re going to presume in favor of a good and reasonable use of it, right? And that’s the best way to be protective of people’s voice on the platforms, but there are trade-offs,” he said. “It’s hard because you are making compromises where you can never make a rule that’s going to capture all of the instances in which all of the different ways in which the same word would be used.”
INSIDE NIH’S TAXPAYER-FUNDED TRANS STUDY ON THE ‘BENEFITS’ OF PUBERTY BLOCKERS
In its rulings, the board aired its concerns over Meta’s January rule changes to its “hateful conduct policy,” deeming them “hastily” made:
“Our decisions note concerns that Meta’s January 7, 2025, policy and enforcement changes were announced hastily, in a departure from regular procedure, with no public information shared as to what, if any, prior human rights due diligence the company performed.”