{"id":26373,"date":"2024-09-10T17:50:06","date_gmt":"2024-09-10T17:50:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/02289e0c-856a-4557-b967-81cfd2dca26012"},"modified":"2024-09-10T17:50:06","modified_gmt":"2024-09-10T17:50:06","slug":"in-its-first-threads-case-metas-oversight-board-asked-for-clarity-on-death-threats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/in-its-first-threads-case-metas-oversight-board-asked-for-clarity-on-death-threats\/","title":{"rendered":"In its first Threads case, Meta\u2019s Oversight Board asked for clarity on death threats"},"content":{"rendered":"

Meta\u2019s Oversight Board has weighed in<\/span> on its first Threads case<\/span> and reversed the company\u2019s initial decision and first appeal. Regarding a post about the outgoing Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, using a phrase that translates to \u201cdrop dead \/ die\u201d in English, the board determined the phrase was used figuratively and not as a literal threat or call to violence.<\/p>\n

The case was sparked by a Threads<\/span> post showing a news article about Kishida and his reaction to his political party\u2019s (ahem)<\/em> \u201cfundraising irregularities.\u201d The caption criticized the Prime Minister, accusing him of tax evasion. The user\u2019s reply demanded an explanation from the government leader and, calling him a tax evader, used the phrase \u201c\u6b7b\u306d,\u201d or \u201cdrop dead \/ die.\u201d The post also included \u201chah\u201d and derogatory language about people who wear glasses. (Watch yourself there, partner!)<\/p>\n

The post went largely unnoticed, with no likes. But someone reported it under Meta\u2019s Bullying and Harassment rules. After three weeks, one of Meta\u2019s reviewers determined it instead broke the Violence and Incitement rules. The user appealed, and another reviewer agreed with the first that it violated the policy. One more appeal teed up the issue for the board, which accepted the case and overruled the two human reviewers who removed it.<\/p>\n

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\"Japanese\"Japanese<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida (The Government of Japan)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

\u201cIn this case, the threat against a political leader was intended as non-literal political criticism calling attention to alleged corruption, using strong language, which is not unusual on Japanese social media,\u201d Meta\u2019s Oversight Board wrote in its explanation. \u201cIt was unlikely to cause harm.\u201d The board considered the poster\u2019s use of \u201chah\u201d to help determine its figurative sense.<\/p>\n

The board said that, despite speaking Japanese and understanding local content, the moderators who removed the post were \u201cin error.\u201d It recommends Meta clarify its internal guidelines and offer more guidance for reviewers on \u201chow to evaluate language and local content.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meta\u2019s Oversight Board added that the Violence and Incitement policy includes a rule prohibiting the phrase \u201cdeath to\u201d against \u201chigh-risk persons\u201d isn\u2019t clear enough. It said that while the company\u2019s policy rationale suggests context matters in threat evaluation, its reviewers aren\u2019t empowered to assess cases involving the \u201cdeath to\u201d phrase. The board echoed its 2022 recommendation<\/span> for Meta to explain that rhetorical threats using the phrase are \u201cgenerally allowed, except when directed at high-risk individuals, and to provide criteria on when threatening statements directed at heads of state are permitted to protect rhetorical political speech.\u201d<\/p>\n

Further, the board recommended that Meta clarify how the policy differs for \u201cpublic figures\u201d vs. \u201chigh-risk persons.\u201d It calls out the confusion over why threats against public figures are only removed when \u201ccredible.\u201d In contrast, those against others are axed \u201cregardless of credibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Oversight Board has had a busy September after deciding on only 53 cases last year<\/span>. Last week, it ruled that the phrase \u201cFrom the River to the Sea\u201d shouldn\u2019t be banned<\/span> and, in a case with some parallels to this one, it separated death threats from \u201caspirational statements\u201d<\/span> in Venezuela.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Meta\u2019s Oversight Board has weighed in on its first Threads case and reversed the company\u2019s initial decision and first appeal. Regarding a post about the outgoing Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, using a phrase that translates to \u201cdrop dead \/ die\u201d in English, the board determined the phrase was used figuratively and not as a …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26374,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"hashtags":[],"class_list":["post-26373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gadgets","has-thumb","has-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26373"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26373"},{"taxonomy":"hashtags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtags?post=26373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}