Meta's Oversight Board Is Fine With Leaving Manipulated Content On Facebook

Apparently misleading protestation videos are invited to enactment connected Facebook now. Meta's Oversight Board has ruled that nan institution was correct to time off up a manipulated video that made footage of a Serbian protestation look for illustration it took spot successful Holland and was successful support of Rodrigo Duterte, erstwhile president of nan Philippines. A personification reshared it wrong days of Duterte's March 2025 extradition to nan International Criminal Court (ICC) successful nan Netherlands.

The original video gained further audio and captions, including chants of "Duterte" and nan opus Bayan Ko — which accompanied galore Filipino 1980s anti-martial rule protests — played successful tagalog. About 100,000 users viewed nan manipulated video, alongside "hundreds" of shares.

Meta's automated systems flagged nan video arsenic imaginable misinformation and lowered its visibility for non-US users. However, contempt it being added to nan fact-checking queue, nan "high measurement of posts" meant it was ne'er reviewed. Fact-checkers successful nan Philippines checked immoderate akin viral videos and branded them arsenic false. It reached nan attraction of nan Oversight Board only aft a abstracted Facebook personification reported this video and appealed it erstwhile Meta near nan contented up.

But nan Oversight Board now says it agrees pinch Meta's determination to time off a wholly inaccurate protestation video public. It conscionable notes that Meta should person fixed nan video a "High-Risk" explanation "because it contained a digitally altered, photorealistic video pinch a precocious consequence of deceiving nan nationalist during a important nationalist event." How thing pinch that explanation merits staying up connected Facebook is very unclear.

The Oversight Board further states that Meta should person prioritized a video of this quality getting fact-checked. Moving forward, it recommends that Meta create a abstracted fact-checking queue for immoderate contented of a akin quality to what has been fact-checked successful that marketplace — and that fact-checkers should person improved devices to much swiftly find misleading viral media. It besides wants Meta to amended picture its labels for manipulated media truthful users tin understand nan criteria.

Meta notably suspended its fact-checking program successful nan US successful January, opting alternatively for Community Notes. However, it's now looking astatine expanding that strategy different countries and has asked nan Oversight Board for proposal connected locations.