Oversight Board Statement On Protecting Election Integrity On Meta's Platforms
20 de octubre de 2026
The Oversight Board co-chairs have issued the following statement in light of Meta's handling of the “No Kings” Instagram account, Brazil elections and other upcoming polls globally:
“The Oversight Board is concerned by recurring enforcement failures in Meta’s election integrity efforts. From the removal of political activist accounts during protests in the U.S. ahead of the midterm elections to technical restrictions that hit the accounts of a presidential candidate in Brazil leading to allegations of electoral interference, it’s clear that Meta must do more to ensure that its enforcement practices during elections are transparent and consistent and that political speech is protected rather than stifled.
"We have repeatedly warned that during elections and periods of heightened political tension, Meta's content moderation failures often manifest themselves in two ways: overenforcement that suppresses political speech and underenforcement that undermines electoral integrity.
"The enforcement error regarding the No Kings account should have been caught by Meta's mistake-prevention systems. It remains unclear why Meta’s election integrity efforts did not lead to a much quicker resolution or why No Kings accounts were not included in Meta's cross-check program – which allows the company to designate important civic entities to ensure human review before a decision is made that could severely jeopardize participation in a significant political event.
"Similarly, the overenforcement of Meta's fraud policies against Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's ad accounts represents a breakdown that should have been escalated to an internal team of expert reviewers.
"In response to failures in Meta’s handling of the October 2022 presidential elections in Brazil, the Board called on Meta to build a measurable framework for evaluating its election integrity efforts, including sharing relevant metrics. While Meta frequently cites broad activity metrics, such as number of ads stored or accounts removed, it has yet to establish public metrics that transparently evaluate the effectiveness of – or critical gaps in – its enforcement. That must change.
"As the Board has highlighted in several cases involving regional elections (Iraqi Kurdistan), anti-government protests (Iran Protest Slogan) and political satire (Harris-Walz), improper removals of political speech before an election risk undermining electoral integrity and creating an irreversible chill on political participation. Automated enforcement tools must take language, nuance and political context into account to better protect political speech that does not incite violence.
"Meta pledged in 2025 to allow more speech and fewer mistakes around elections and political debate. As recent events demonstrate, the company still has more work to do to fulfill that promise."
