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Meta’s Oversight Board urges improved distinction between hate speech and criticism of hate speech
(JTA) – In January, a Turkish Instagram user posted part of an interview with Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, making statements in praise of Hitler and denying the Holocaust as well — and swiftly had the post removed from the social media platform.
But that wasn’t a success story for Meta’s efforts to keep hate speech off Instagram, the company’s Oversight Board has ruled. That’s because the Ye interview was accompanied by a reaction video of a reporter condemning his comments and sharing a family link to Holocaust victims.
Meta’s hate-speech detection system failed to grasp that the user was criticizing Ye, not endorsing him. So the company removed the post, accusing the user of violating its hate speech policies.
Now, the Oversight Board, an independent body tasked with reviewing Meta’s content moderation decisions, says the owner of Facebook and Instagram should improve its efforts to distinguish posts that promulgate hate from ones that aim to combat it. Too often, the board explained in a summary of its decision, human and automated moderators flag posts that are meant to educate against hate and antisemitism.
“Such mistakes can suppress speech meant to respond to hate speech, including Holocaust denial, or condemn statements of praise for dangerous individuals such as Hitler,” the summary said. “Protecting counter-speech is essential for advancing freedom of expression and a tool for combating harmful content such as misinformation and hate speech.”
Meta’s Oversight Board said Meta disregarded the context within which the user presented Ye’s comments and erroneously removed the post under policies barring Holocaust denial and praise of figures such as Hitler. The user appealed the removal to no avail, but when the Oversight Board brought the matter to Meta’s attention, the company acknowledged the error and restored the post.
The Oversight Board decided to examine the case despite the correction because it considers the underlying issue important, it said in a summary of its reasoning.
The board reiterated recommendations made in previous cases that Meta check how often its content moderators and algorithms incorrectly remove posts meant to educate about or counter hate speech. The accidental censoring of educational content has plagued the company for years, spiking, for example, when Meta banned Holocaust denial in 2020.
It is not the first time the Oversight Board, set up in 2020 amid allegations that Meta’s platforms help the spread of misinformation and extremism, has taken up a case involving antisemitism. Of the nearly 50 cases that have passed through its docket, at least four have touched upon Holocaust denial or Nazi-related content.
The most recent case came last month when the board announced it would examine Meta’s handling of a post distorting the Holocaust. In earlier cases, the board overturned Meta’s removal of a post featuring a quote incorrectly attributed to Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels and a post comparing the Russian military to Nazis.
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The post Meta’s Oversight Board urges improved distinction between hate speech and criticism of hate speech appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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250 Hezbollah Terrorists Including 21 Commanders Eliminated in Ground Op
DF operating in southern Lebanon. Photo: IDF Spokesperson
i24 News – The Israeli military eliminated 250 Hezbollah terrorists including 21 commanders in four days of ground combat, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement on Friday.
IDF soldiers operating in southern Lebanon have uncovered vast caches of weapons and munitions in civilian residences, showing how central embedding within civilian population is to Hezbollah’s mode of warfare.
Meanwhile, heavy strikes targeting the Hezbollah stronghold of Dahieh in southern Beirut were ongoing, Lebanese media reported.
The post 250 Hezbollah Terrorists Including 21 Commanders Eliminated in Ground Op first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Airstrikes Launched on Several Parts of Yemen, Houthi Al Masirah TV says
Illustrative. Hodeidah, Yemen, July 20, 2024. Houthi Military Media/Handout via REUTERS
Airstrikes were launched on Friday at several parts of Yemen including its capital Sanaa and Hodeidah airport, Al Masirah TV, the main television news outlet run by the Houthi movement controlling much of Yemen, and residents said.
Strikes also targeted the south of Dhamar city and the southeast of al-Bayda province, the channel added.
Residents said that the attack on al-Bayda province targeted several Houthi military outposts.
Al Masirah TV reported that the strikes had been carried out by the United States and British forces, but a British government source said Britain was not involved.
Iran-aligned Houthi militants have launched attacks on international shipping near Yemen since last November in solidarity with Palestinians in Israel‘s war with Hamas.
The attacks have drawn US and British retaliatory strikes and disrupted global trade as ship owners reroute vessels away from the Red Sea and Suez Canal to sail the longer route around the southern tip of Africa.
Following the airstrikes, a Houthi spokesman called the attack “a desperate attempt,” adding that “Yemen will not be deterred by these attacks and will continue its steadfastness in confronting the enemies.”
The post Airstrikes Launched on Several Parts of Yemen, Houthi Al Masirah TV says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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IDF Kills Hamas Commander in Tulkarem
Illustrative. Israeli troops during counterterrorism activity in Tulkarem, northwestern Samaria, September 2024. Photo: IDF.
JNS.org – An Israeli Air Force fighter jet conducted a rare strike in Tulkarem in the West Bank on Thursday night, targeting top Hamas terrorist Zahi Yaser Abd al-Razeq Oufi.
The Palestinian Authority reported at least 18 fatalities in the strike, with a local security source telling Agence France-Presse it was the deadliest in Judea and Samaria since the Second Intifada.
Ayyth Radwan, the head of Islamic Jihad’s Tulkarem branch, was also reportedly killed.
Oufi was planning a terrorist attack “in the immediate time frame,” according to the Israel Defense Forces, and directed the thwarted car bombing last month near Ateret in the Binyamin region of Samaria.
There were no casualties in the incident, which Israel Ganz, the head of the Binyamin Regional Council, called a “great miracle.”
The IDF said Oufi was involved in smuggling weapons to terrorists who perpetrated several recent attacks against Israelis, including some that resulted in injuries to civilians.
He also “worked to establish terrorist networks on behalf of Hamas and assisted terror operatives in the area to carry out significant shooting and explosive attacks,” added the military.
The post IDF Kills Hamas Commander in Tulkarem first appeared on Algemeiner.com.