Facebook Oversight Board overrules decision on user’s Armenian Genocide meme

According to the Oversight Board, back on December 24, 2020, a user posted a comment along with a meme they described as "an adaptation of the daily struggle or two buttons meme.

"This featured the split-screen cartoon from the original two buttons meme, but with a Turkish flag substituted for the cartoon character's face. The cartoon character has its right hand on its head and appears to be sweating. Above the character, in the other half of the split-screen, are two red buttons with corresponding statements in English: 'The Armenian Genocide is a lie' and 'The Armenians were terrorists that deserved it.'"

One content moderator had flagged the comment for violating Facebook's Hate Speech Community Standard, with another saying it violated the Cruel and Insensitive Community Standard.

Facebook removed the comment under the Cruel and Insensitive Community Standard.

The user appealed the decision, with Facebook then saying the comment violated the Hate Speech Community Standard, but did not inform the user of the change of Community Standard being upheld.

The phrase "The Armenians were terrorists that deserved it" was stated as the reason why Facebook removed the comment, as it "contained claims that Armenians were criminals based on their nationality and ethnicity."

"Facebook also stated that the meme was not covered by an exception which allows users to share hateful content to condemn it or raise awareness. The company claimed that the cartoon character could be reasonably viewed as either condemning or embracing the two statements featured in the meme," according to the Oversight Board.

The Oversight Board stated that its members instead viewed that the two buttons meme was instead highlighting two potential contradictions.

"As such, they found that the user shared the meme to raise awareness of and condemn the Turkish government's efforts to deny the Armenian genocide while, at the same time, justifying these same historic atrocities," they said.

The Oversight Board rules that they would overturn Facebook's decisions, and would require that the comment be restored.

They added that they recommend Facebook "Inform users of the Community Standard enforced by the company. If Facebook determines that a user's content violates a different Community Standard to the one the user was originally told about, they should have another opportunity to appeal," as well as "include the satire exception, which is not currently available to users, in the public language of its Hate Speech Community Standard."