Meta's (META.O) independent Oversight Board said on Thursday it would review how the company has handled violent content on its social media platforms in two cases involving hostage-taking and bombing in the Israel-Hamas war.
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The cases will be the first to use a new expedited review mechanism announced earlier this year that requires the board to make decisions within 30 days. The board usually deliberates for several months on its cases.
The board's decision to take on the cases comes as social media platforms have been flooded with violent, hateful, and misleading content in the two-month-old war between Israel and Hamas, the terror group in Gaza that carried out the Oct, 7 terror attack on Israeli towns, killing over 1,200 Israelis, and taking 243 hostages, of which thus far, 113 were returned, and 17 were murdered.
After that terror attack, Meta temporarily lowered its threshold for removing potentially harmful content, including posts that identified hostages taken by Hamas. The company has also faced accusations that it was suppressing expressions of support for Palestinians living under Israel's military response in Gaza.
In one case to be reviewed by the board, Meta took down a video on Instagram showing the aftermath of an explosion at the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, caused by a misfired rocket of the Islamic Jihad terror group, and included injured and dead children, the board said.
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A video of Noa Argamani and Avinatan Or kidnapped to the Gaza Strip by Hamas terrorists
A caption on the video claimed the hospital had been targeted by the "usurping occupation," an apparent reference to the Israeli army, it said. The hospital, the biggest medical facility in the Palestinian Territories, has been at the center of accusations of war crimes on both sides of the war. Human Rights Watch last month said its investigation found the explosion at the hospital was likely caused by a rocket commonly used by Palestinian terror groups.
Meta restored the content with a warning screen after the board selected the case for review.
The other case involves a video on Facebook showing Noa Argamani begging the terrorists not to kill her as she is driven away on a motorbike, while her partner Avinatan Or is also being dragged by Hamas terrorists. A caption urges people to raise awareness of what happened on Oct. 7, the board said.
Meta initially took down the video but reversed its decision weeks later in response to trends around how hostage kidnapping videos were being shared, according to the board.
As with the video in the first case, it was restored with a warning screen, the board said.
In a statement, Meta said it welcomed the Oversight Board's review and pledged to implement its decision in each case.