Meta Oversight Board Greenlights Anti-Semitic, Genocidal Phrase, But Misgendering…Not So Much

September 5th, 2024 3:27 PM

The Meta Oversight Board has come forward with conceivably its most hypocritical ruling since its creation.

The board ruled on Wednesday that the phrase “From the River to the Sea” is allowed on Meta-owned social platforms, despite its anti-Semitic implications. The expression is used by terrorist organizations and radical Islamists to advocate for Jewish genocide and the abolishment of the nation of Israel.

This decision exposes a glaring double standard in the board’s ruthless approach to so-called hate speech, particularly posts about policies relating to transgender and non-binary individuals. The board has advocated for the shielding of LGBTQI+ groups from online free speech to such an extent that it included them among its seven strategic priorities

Flashback: Globalist Meta Oversight Board Absurdly Lists ‘Gender’ Among ‘Seven Strategic Priorities’

Since its inception in 2020, the board has scolded Meta for not doing enough to censor content deemed detrimental to LGBTQI+ policy priorities; pressured Meta to expedite the censorship of content falsely linking the spread of COVID-19 to Asian Americans; and upheld the infamous suspension of then-President Donald Trump after Jan. 6 for allegedly violating Meta’s Community Standards on Dangerous Individuals and Organizations.

However, the board’s concern for those who it described as marginalized or vulnerable individuals went out the window when it came to Jewish people. 

The board ruled that users sharing posts or comments containing the phrase “From the River to the Sea” do not violate Meta’s rules on “Hate Speech, Violence and Incitement or Dangerous Organizations and Individuals.” The phrase, the board bafflingly claimed, simply shows “solidarity with Palestinians.”

The decision stemmed from three Facebook posts that featured the genocidal phrase. The board specifically contended that the posts contained “no language calling for violence or exclusion” and did “not glorify or even refer to Hamas, an organization designated as dangerous by Meta.”

The board’s rule left many perplexed given the phrase’s genocidal origins, which some trace to the 1960s. The phrase — which is embedded in the constitution of Hamas, the foreign designated terrorist group behind the Oct. 7 attack on the nation of Israel — calls for the establishment of a Palestinian state from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, essentially advocating for the destruction of the Jewish state.

Critics, including Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), swiftly denounced the board’s refusal to apply its standards against hate speech concerning the infamous phrase.

“F*ck that,” Fetterman commented on X. “It’s blatant antisemitic hate speech calling for the elimination of Israel from the map.”

MRC Free Speech America Vice President Dan Schneider had a different take. He said, “The oversight board got this wrong in two different ways. First, the phrase used by anti-Israel terrorists is obviously hateful. There’s no getting around that genocide is motivated by the most vile kind of hate.” 

Schneider, who is Jewish, continued, “But the board incorrectly assumes that speech opposing sex-change operations for minors is also hateful. The right answer about when to allow the free expression of ideas is to allow and encourage more of it. Censoring some political discussions but allowing others never turns out well.”

Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on hate speech and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.