The external advisory group created by Meta created to review its moderation decisions on Facebook and Instagram, The Oversight Board, has issued a decision on Monday concerning a doctored video of US President Joe Biden that made the rounds on social media last year.
The original video showed the president accompanying his granddaughter Natalie Biden to cast her ballot during early voting in the 2022 midterm elections. In the video, President Biden pins an “I Voted” sticker on his granddaughter and kisses her on the cheek.
A short, edited version of the video removes visual evidence of the sticker, setting the clip to a song with sexual lyrics and looping it to depict Biden inappropriately touching the young woman.
The seven second clip was uploaded to Facebook in May 2023 with a caption describing President Biden as a “sick pedophile.”
Meta’s Oversight Board announced that it would take on the case last October after a Facebook user reported the video and ultimately escalated the case when the platform declined to remove it. In its decision, issued on Monday, the Oversight Board states that Meta’s choice to leave the video online was consistent with the platform’s rules, but calls the relevant policy “incoherent.”
According to Oversight Board Co-Chair Michael McConnell, “As it stands, the policy makes little sense. It bans altered videos that show people saying things they do not say, but does not prohibit posts depicting an individual doing something they did not do. It only applies to video created through AI, but lets other fake content off the hook.”
McConnell also pointed to the policy’s failure to address manipulated audio, calling it “one of the most potent forms of electoral disinformation.”
The Oversight Board’s argues that Meta’s rules should be guided by the harms they are designed to prevent instead of focusing on how a particular piece of content was created. According to the decision any changes should be implemented “urgently” in light of global elections.
Beyond expanding its manipulated media policy, the Oversight Board suggested that Meta add labels to altered videos flagging them as such instead of relying on fact-checkers, a process the group criticizes as “asymmetric depending on language and market.”
By labeling more content rather than taking it down, the Oversight Board believes that Meta can maximize freedom of expression, mitigate potential harm and provide more information for users.
The altered video continues to circulate on X.
Last month, a verified X account with 267,000 followers shared the clip with the caption “The media just pretend this isn’t happening.” The video has more than 611,000 views.
The Oversight Board has generally urged Meta to provide more detail and transparency in its policies, across cases.
As the Oversight Board noted when it accepted the Biden “cheap fake” case, Meta stood by its decision to leave the altered video online because its policy on manipulated media as misleadingly altered photos and videos rules only applies when AI is used or when the subject of a video is portrayed saying something they did not say.
Researchers and watchdog groups are bracing for an onslaught of misleading claims and AI-generated fakes as the 2024 presidential race ramps up.
Philips Babatunde