Meta’s Oversight Board said today that the company was wrong not to take down a Facebook video that incited the January 8 riots in Brasília. The video features a Brazilian general calling on people to “take to the streets” and “go to the Congress and Supreme Court” headquarters.
Posted on January 3, 2023, the video included captions in Portuguese calling on viewers to “besiege” the Brazilian Congress as “the last alternative” to overturn the 2022 presidential election results.
The video also contained a sequence of images, including one of a fire raging in the Three Powers Plaza in Brasília, home to the Brazilian president’s office, Congress, and the Supreme Court. In addition, the text superimposed over the image read, in Portuguese, “Come to Brasília! Let’s storm it! Let’s lay siege to the three branches of government.”
On the day the video was posted, one user reported it for violating Meta’s Violence and Incitement Community Standard, which prohibits calls for forcible entry into high-risk locations. Four users reported the post seven times between January 3 and 4.
After the first report, the content was reviewed and found not to violate Meta’s policies. The user appealed, but a second content reviewer upheld the decision. The Oversight Board notes that the next day, the other six reports were reviewed by five different moderators, all of whom found that the video did not violate Meta’s policies, adding that “the post was not escalated to policy or subject matter experts for additional review.” None of the reviewers were Brazilian, but were Portuguese speakers based in Europe.
The Oversight Board is an independent body funded by Meta that reviews content moderation decisions on Facebook and Instagram, and sets precedents for the organization. It currently has 20 members with diverse backgrounds, including Brazilian lawyer Ronaldo Lemos, who specializes in technology.
The video was viewed more than 18,000 times. On January 8, thousands of supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro — incited by unfounded accusations of voter fraud — stormed and ransacked the buildings that house the three branches of government.
A day after the attacks in Brasília, Meta declared that the invasion was a “violating event” and that it would remove content that supported or praised the act. Meta only acknowledged its error after the Oversight Board selected the case for analysis and removed the video on January 20.
The Federal Supreme Court is investigating Mr. Bolsonaro for allegedly inciting the attack on Brasília, and Congress is conducting a parliamentary inquiry into the riots. Around 1,400 people were arrested for participating in the events, and some 600 remain in custody.
While acknowledging that “most of the logistical organization” of the acts “appears to have been accomplished through communication channels other than Facebook,” and that the company put several risk evaluation and mitigation measures in place during and after the election, the Oversight Board said that Meta should continually increase its efforts to prevent, mitigate, and address adverse outcomes like these.
In addition to finding that the platform’s decision regarding the video was wrong, the Oversight Board recommended that Meta develop a framework for evaluating its election integrity efforts to prevent its platforms from being used to promote political violence.
“Such a framework should include metrics of success for key aspects of Meta’s election integrity efforts, allowing the company not only to identify and reverse errors, but also to keep track of how effective its measures are in critical situations.”
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