Meta's Oversight Board overturns company decision to let Holocaust denial post stay on Instagram

The board said that the post was reported six times for violating Meta's hate speech policies.(Representational Image)

Meta's Oversight board has overturned Meta's original decision to let a Holocaust denial post stay up on Instagram.

The Oversight board is an independent body created in 2020, and made up of prominent figures in philanthropy and was created as a form of self-governance for Meta's social media platforms.

The offending post in question was put up on Instagram in 2020 using a popular meme template featuring Squidward from SpongeBob SquarePants. The post used speech bubbles to spew distorted and false claims about the Holocaust.

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The board said that the post was reported six times for violating Meta's hate speech policies. Four of these reports were assessed as non-violating by Meta's automated content moderation system, and shockingly passed again when it was reviewed twice by human reviewers.

The board noted that this took place when Meta's COVID-19 automation policies were in effect that automatically closed certain cases to reduce the volume of work being sent to human reviewers.

The board also commissioned an assessment of Holocaust Denial posts on other Meta platforms, and found the same Squidward meme format being used to spread further lies across all of Meta's social media platforms.

It found that posters used several ways to avoid detection from automated systems such as creating narratives using memes and cartoons, replacing vowels with symbols and more.

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The board also found that Meta was still employing its COVID-19 automation policies as late as May of 2023. It has recommended that Meta take technical steps to monitor and enforce bans of Holocaust denial content.

The board has also asked Meta to publicly confirm whether it has ended its COVID-19 automation policies.