‘From the River to the Sea’ is not hate speech, Meta’s Oversight Board rules

New York (CNN) — Meta’s Oversight Board has found that the phrase “From the River to the Sea,” used to express Palestinian support, did not break the company’s hate speech policies.

Critics of the phrase, which refers to the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, say that it calls for the abolishment of the Israeli state. The Anti-Defamation League accused the slogan of being antisemitic and a “rallying cry (that) has long been used by anti-Israel voices, including supporters of terrorist organizations such as Hamas.”

But the chant is also frequently used at pro-Palestinian demonstrations by protesters who say it is to call for equal rights and an independent state for Palestinians. It can refer to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza who are restricted in their movements and from visiting Jerusalem.

The Board said it reviewed three cases involving the use of “From the River to the Sea” on Facebook and said that all appeals to remove the content were closed without human review. Those users then appealed to the Board, which exists for users to challenge Meta’s appeals process on Facebook, Instagram or Threads.

“Specifically, the three pieces of content contain contextual signs of solidarity with Palestinians – but no language calling for violence or exclusion. They also do not glorify or even refer to Hamas, an organization designated as dangerous by Meta,” the decision said. The posts and comments also didn’t contain threats of violence or physical harm.

Though the majority of the Board agreed the phrase has multiple meanings, the decision noted that a minority believed it glorifies Hamas because it appeared in the group’s 2017 charter.

“The phrase’s use by this terrorist group with explicit violent eliminationist intent and actions, does not make the phrase inherently hateful or violent – considering the variety of people using the phrase in different ways,” the Board said.

The Board said the decision underscores tensions in protecting free expression and political speech.

In June, a Palestinian-American engineer sued Meta, accusing his former employer of discriminating against pro-Palestinian speech and wrongfully firing him when he investigated those issues.

“The employee was dismissed for violating Meta’s data access policies, which we make clear to employees will result in immediate termination,” Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said in a statement to CNN at the time.

The company said it is expanding on its hate speech policies. In July, Meta said it would remove posts that have the term “Zionist” when used in conjunction with antisemitic tropes or dehumanizing rhetoric.

“These cases have again underscored the importance of data access to effectively assess Meta’s content moderation during conflicts, as well as the need for a method to track the amount of content attacking people based on a protected characteristic,” the decision said.

The chant had been contentious even before the Israel and Hamas war, which has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians after Hamas’ October 7th attack that killed more than 1,200 Israelis and took 250 hostage. For example, in 2018 CNN said it severed ties with a liberal pundit after he called for a “free Palestine from the river to the sea.”

But new attention has been drawn to the chant as protesters call for an end to the war, and the phrase is frequently used at protests ranging from college campuses to large cities. In Germany, using the slogan “From the river to the sea” is now a criminal offense. In December, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) filed a discrimination complaint on behalf of a Black Muslim Arab American teacher in Maryland after she was placed on administrative leave for her email signature, which contained the slogan. US Congress member Rashida Tlaib was censured for using the phrase.

The slogan used in the cases had wide reach through Meta’s platforms. In one case, a likely AI-generated image of floating watermelon slices that formed the slogan was viewed about eight million times and reported by 937 users.

CNN’s Brian Fung, Alaa Elassar and Jennifer Henderson contributed to this report.

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