وصف حالة
The Oversight Board will address the two cases below together, choosing either to uphold or overturn Meta’s decisions on a case-by-case basis.
The Board has selected two cases involving videos depicting sexual harassment on public transportation in India and Brazil, in order to assess Meta’s moderation practices when a user’s intent is to raise awareness about the issue of women’s safety.
The first case involves a video posted to a Facebook page in November 2025, in which a woman who is not identifiable in the recording, films a man sitting next to her on a bus in India. The man attempts to grope her and she verbally confronts him. The accompanying caption praises the victim’s reaction, expresses dismay at the lack of support shown by those around her, and raises awareness about the issue of women’s safety. The content was viewed more than 60 times before it was taken down by the company.
The second case involves an 18-second video posted to Instagram in December 2025 from Brazil. The video, also recorded by an unidentifiable woman sitting next to a man on a bus, shows the man holding his genitalia beneath his clothes, while looking at his phone. The text overlay and the accompanying caption provide details on the incident while also expressing concern for women’s safety and the issue of harassment on public transportation. The post had more than 150,000 views before it was removed.
Both posts were taken down under Meta’s Adult Sexual Exploitation Community Standard. In the case from India, a user reported the content on the same day it was posted. Multiple human reviewers, including policy subject matter experts, determined that the content violated the Adult Sexual Exploitation policy, and removed it. In the case from Brazil, two users reported the content on the same day it was posted. After human review, it was removed.
In both cases, the content creators appealed to Meta, which conducted additional human reviews, and upheld the original decisions to take down the content. The content creators then appealed to the Board.
In their submissions to the Board, the users described the content as an effort to raise awareness about the issue of women’s safety on public transportation. After the Board selected these cases, Meta determined that the posts were removed in error. The company restored the content with warning screens, and restricted access to adults only.
The Board selected these cases to assess Meta’s moderation practices in enforcing its Adult Sexual Exploitation and related Community Standards, particularly in the context of raising awareness of sexual harassment and gender-based violence. This case falls within the Board’s Gender strategic priority.
The Board would appreciate public comments that address:
- The prevalence, forms and impact of sexual harassment of women in public spaces, particularly on public transportation in South Asia and/or Latin America.
- The role and significance of social media in raising awareness on issues related to sexual harassment and gender-based violence.
- Best practices and recommendations for the moderation of sexually explicit content on platforms, particularly in the context of awareness-raising and information-sharing. Comments can also address the impact of automated mechanisms and AI tools in the moderation of such content.
- The potential harms that may result from leaving depictions of sexual harassment on platforms, even with mitigation measures (such as age-gating, warning screens, etc.) in place.
In its decisions, the Board can issue policy recommendations to Meta. While recommendations are not binding, Meta must respond to them within 60 days. As such, the Board welcomes public comments proposing recommendations that are relevant to these cases.
