Meta’s oversight board seeks public input on immigration posts

Meta’s Oversight Board has opened a public consultation on immigration-related content that may harm immigrants following two controversial cases on Facebook. The board, which operates independently but is funded by Meta, will assess whether the company’s policies sufficiently protect refugees, migrants, immigrants, and asylum seekers from severe hate speech.

The first case concerns a Facebook post made in May by a Polish far-right coalition, which used a racially offensive term. Despite the post accumulating over 150,000 views, 400 shares, and receiving 15 hate speech reports from users, Meta chose to keep it up following a human review. The second case involves a June post from a German Facebook page that included an image expressing hostility toward immigrants. Meta also upheld its decision to leave this post online after review.

Following the Oversight Board’s intervention, Meta’s experts reviewed both cases again but upheld the initial decisions. Helle Thorning-Schmidt, co-chair of the board, stated that these cases are critical in determining if Meta’s policies are effective and sufficient in addressing harmful content on its platform.