केस विवरण
In May 2024, two Facebook users separately posted images showing the former national flag of South Africa. This flag, which became associated with the country’s apartheid system of racial segregation, was replaced in 1994 by a new national flag. The two Facebook posts were shared in the run-up to South Africa’s General Election on May 29, 2024, during which immigration, inequalities and unemployment were key issues.
The first post shows a soldier carrying the pre-1994 flag. The image, which appears to have been taken during the apartheid years (1948-1994), is accompanied by a caption encouraging others to share the post if they “served under this flag.” The content was viewed more than 500,000 times and shared more than 5,000 times. The post received numerous comments, with many suggesting that South Africa was a safer country during apartheid, while others emphasized the suffering experienced by people during those years. By the time the Board selected this case, three users had reported the content to Meta, for hate speech and violence. Following human review, the content was found to be non-violating and left on Facebook.
The second post contains multiple images of a previous era, including the country’s former flag, a nostalgic picture of a seaside theme park, a packet of candy cigarettes, a toy gun and a black man on a bicycle ice cream cart, with white children next to him. The caption expresses fondness for the previous era and asks the audience to “read between the lines,” followed by a winking face and an “OK” hand emoji. While in most instances, the OK hand emoji is used by people to show approval or agree that something is okay, this symbol has been adopted by some as an expression of white supremacy. The post was viewed more than 2 million times and shared over a thousand times. Many users commented on the post, positively describing life during apartheid, including on law and order. Other comments noted that it was not a good time for all. Within a week of posting, 184 users reported the content, mostly for hate speech. Some of the reports were reviewed by human reviewers, who determined that the content did not violate the Community Standards. The remaining reports were processed through a combination of automated systems and prior human review decisions. The content was kept up on the platform.
When the Board selected this content, Meta’s policy subject matter experts reviewed both posts again and the company confirmed that its original decisions to keep both pieces of content up on Facebook were correct.
In their statement to the Board, the user who reported the first post stated that South Africa’s former flag is comparable to the German Nazi flag and that “brazenly displaying” it “incites violence” because the country is still reeling from the impact of “this crime against humanity [apartheid].” The user also stated that sharing such images during an election period can encourage racial hatred and endanger lives. Similarly, the user who reported the second post explained that the “context of the post suggests” apartheid was a “better time” for South Africans and that such use of the flag is illegal. The user also emphasized how the former flag represents oppression.
The Board selected these cases to address the issue of glorifying or praising hateful or racial supremacist ideologies, including through the use of symbols, especially in the lead-up to an election. Such content can have public interest value, e.g., to raise awareness about or condemn an issue, but it may also be used to glorify or incite racial discrimination or violence. These cases, which provide an opportunity to evaluate Meta’s current approach on this issue, fall within the Board’s strategic priorities of Elections and Civic Space and Hate Speech.
The Board would appreciate public comments that address:
- The sociopolitical context in South Africa, in particular the nature of public and political discourse around apartheid and racial inequality, including in the lead-up to the 2024 elections, the impact of displaying the apartheid flag since 1994, and the role of supremacist and apartheid-sympathetic groups in social and political life.
- The coded use of online symbols, such as the ‘OK’ hand emoji and other symbols adopted by white supremacist groups on social media in South Africa and/or globally.
- Approaches to moderating visual content involving potential implicit attacks against groups with protected characteristics, particularly in contexts where there is a history of racial segregation.
- Risks of over-enforcement of removing hate symbols at scale, as well as analysis of least intrusive means among digital tools (beyond removals and geoblocking) that are available in content moderation to address hate symbols.
As part of 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.
टिप्पणियाँ
I don't believe that the Apartheid-era flag should be banned on Facebook. It is part of the country's history, and does not at face value promote racial hatred, in the same way that the ANC flag also doesn't promote racial hatred. The flag has a place and history and elements thereof were actually incorporated into the current national flag of South Africa. Therefore it has public value in raising awareness and should not be banned simply based on stigma.
Stop trying to re-write History. The flag is indicative of a certain era in South African history and no more. It is in the past.
I don't like the new south African flag
The old South African flag is obviously a sensitive issue and the displaying of it in South Africa has been declared as hate speech with some exclusions.
In reality most South Africans don't really have any feeling to it one way or the other, something that is demonstrated in this video by Dan Roodt on his Praag Youtube channel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvUHj7JfigU
Certainly the people I have spoken to, and this would include black, Indian and white people, all felt it was part of the history of the country and one should be able to display it. On that basis I would not be in favour of it being banned on Facebook.
This is much more about the current ANC government wanting to expunge from the history books, anything they find distasteful that it is about a universal sense of outrage by the citizens of the country at large.
The 'old' flag of South Africa is part of the true history of South Africa, and should never be banned. There are too many who bend history for their own desires. That type of history should be banned.
If the flag is used with context that promotes hate speech then the article should be banned. This is entirely different from banning the flag. Banning the flag is like bending history. will set a very dangerous precedent.
This is why we left SA. Petty Government trying to quash freedom of speech because they don't like to hear the truth. Truth hurts babba, live with it
I do not believe in banning symbols; almost any symbol will be hurtful or offensive to someone, or somewhere, so where does one draw the line?
I, therefore, do NOT agree with the proposed banning of the old South African flag.
The flag and any history pertaining to it forms a part of where we came from and where we got to and should never be removed for stupid reasons as you cannot erase history whether it be good or bad and it also serves ad a reminder to all.
This so called 'apartheid-era flag' has nothing to do with apartheid. All races lived a peaceful and good life, and in harmony under that flag. This can be confirmed by speaking to any South African that was not influenced by misguided gossip and inaccurate facts, many spread by social media purely for the purpose of creating support for a lie. This flag is part of the history of a proud nation that once formed part of the commonwealth of nations, and was considered a first world developed country. The fact that a small part of the population decided that it was an 'apartheid-era flag' is a mere sign of immaturity of thought, such as the thoughts of any organisation that would even consider 'banning' the use of it.
No! It should not be banned! It is part of our history whether we like it or not. Laws have been put in place to ensure that Apartheid never happens again. We should however never forget the past!
I do not wish to live in a world where inanimate objects are being banned because it might offend someone.
Where do we draw the line?
A lot of good has also happened under that flag. A lot of bad is done under the new flag! Nothing is ever completely good or bad.
Display of the Apartheid flag should be allowed because it is part of our history. The flag is not responsible for laws that were made by people.
To blame an entire nation of mostly good wholesome people and their old flag for what a specific organization did is divisive and fascist. The flag was from a proud country of all people and all ethnic groups.
I do not subscribe to the use of the old SA flag as a hate symbol. Any symbol (flag,icon, item etc) could be associated with oppression or hate in any society, thus offense is taken or not based on personal bias. The old SA flag covers a period in South Africa's history that can not be erased, and as such I see this a reminder of our history, and the potential that South Africa now has to improve on that period in our history. I therefore do not see why this should be banned from Meta.
I dont believe that history should be deleted or sanitised. But it should not be glorified. And anyone claiming to "miss" or "remember" the days of apartheid is clearly glorifying what the UN has classified a crime against humanity. Our constitution has ruled many times over that there's nothing necessarily wrong with the display of the flag for education and historical purposes. In this context the flag and other symbols are meant to facilitate dialogue. But the context in which they were posted on Facebook do no such thing. They claim to compare two states of South Africa, when there was "rule of law and order" and assume there is none now. To the contrary, the apartheid era was a criminal state. What is the importance of laws if they're unjust and oppress a people, natives at that, on the basis of colour? Those are crimes dressed up as law. In contrast, those very same posts now have the opportunity to be discussed openly, even as they hurt victims of the same apartheid system they glorify. Something natives were killed for in that same apartheid system governed by "rule of law". It is really unfortunate, and in many ways is because of the forgiveness by the victims of their perpetrators without trial for their crimes, that many who actively participated, supported and funded apartheid, now want to "remember" that heinous crime.
This sounds absolutely ridiculous. No one should have the right to ban history. There is the old south African flag and then there is the new South African flag. I believe there were other flags before that.
Banning an old flag is equivalent to denying history and should be seen in the same light as denying the holocast,denying that racism exists or just simply denying and banning anything that a new regime would want to. You cannot erase history.
In the same way that Facebook would like to be known as Meta I ask... should you ban Facebook. I think not.
There are countless statues, names of countries, streets, states etc that exist in the world today that come from a different regime. Should they all be banned? The answer is a resounding NO.
Remember, if you forget history then you will repeat it until you remember.
There is no reason to ban the old SA flag. It will always be part of history.
This world has far more serious issues than a flag. If a flag is regarded as racist, then the Israeli flag needs to be banned as well. I have not objection to the old south African flag
South Africa's history is what it is. Previous flags exist and did so centuries before social media was even conceived. Censorship of history has no educations purpose. It treats large populations of people as one and denies the truth of individualities and their stories. No social media platform should have the power to censor information or to attempt to " protect" anyone against facts and events from our histories. Let's actually Sim yo actually educate rather and allow EVERYONE'S story to be shared and heard. That would honour's our intelligence and growing consciousness today.
It is a part of history. You can’t just ban things you don’t agree with or like. It happened, it’s a fact. Stop trying to limit free speech.
It should be kept. It is part of history. Just think of the nazis where almost 10 million people were slaughtered. The swastika is still there. Part of history. Erasing a flag wont change anything. It won't eradicate any of the past things. Its utterly childish and non sensical. Not all the people living in SA and whose were proud of the country's flag were racist or hate mongers. Keep that in mind