Meta’s Oversight Board is reviewing two cases of posts on Facebook and Instagram related to political violence following Venezuela’s contested presidential election. The reviews will be expedited in light of “exceptional circumstances, including when content could result in urgent real-world consequences.”
Venezuela’s presidential elections were held on July 28th. Both Edmundo González, the opposition candidate, and Nicolás Maduro, the incumbent president, claimed victory in the election. (Veneuela’s National Electoral Council didn’t initially release results, claiming it had been hacked. The result has since been disputed.)
In the weeks since the election, supporters of the opposition have taken to the streets in protest, claiming election interference. Some protesters have been killed by security forces, and the Venezuelan human rights organization Foro Penal claims more than 1,500 people have been detained since the election. Armed paramilitary forces called “colectivos” are reportedly patrolling the streets in search of opposition supporters.
The posts under review by Meta’s oversight board both mention colectivos. Meta’s content moderators have noticed an influx in anti-colectivo content in the weeks following the election, according to a press release from the Oversight Board.
One video posted on Facebook shows a group of men on motorbikes who presumably belong to a colectivo. The caption urges people to “kill those damn colectivos.” Meta removed the post for violating its rules against inciting high-severity violence. A second video on Instagram, which shows a woman telling members of a colectivo, “Go to hell, I hope they kill you all,” was not removed because Meta’s content moderators found it did not include a call to action.
These posts, which have been flagged for potentially violating Meta’s rules, raise “critical questions about the balance the company must strike in moderating posts that could contain vital political criticism and raise awareness of human rights abuses in a repressive environment,” the board’s press release states. At the same time, the posts “may also employ violent language during such a volatile period.”
The board announced it will now deliberate the two Venezuelan cases together and issue a single decision, “…which will be binding on Meta and inform the company’s approach to this type of content in Venezuela more generally.” The decision will be published within 30 days.
