Meta’s Oversight Board rebuked the tech giant Wednesday after the company removed a satirical post depicting Vice President Kamala Harris and Tim Walz as the duo from the film “Dumb and Dumber.”
The Oversight Board, which operates independently from Meta, ruled that the company acted rashly by removing the post, writing that it was obviously a political parody.
“This post is nothing more than a commonplace satirical image of prominent politicians and is instantly recognizable as such,” the board ruled.
The post in question featured the faces of Democratic presidential nominee Harris and her running mate, Mr. Walz, superimposed on a “Dumb and Dumber” poster, with the two main characters pinching each other’s nipples.
Meta’s justification for taking down the post was that it violated the platform’s rule against derogatory sexualized photoshops. The rule is intended to target deep-fake pornography of nonconsenting parties. Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, restored the image once it was informed that the Oversight board would investigate the incident.
Meta’s Oversight Board ruled that nipple pinching did not constitute sexual activity and that taking down the image was an overreach.
Conservative users have long argued that Meta’s censorship policies are biased against them, and many users have migrated to more lenient social media platforms like Truth Social and Rumble.
Alternatively, liberal users have complained that Meta and other social media sites haven’t done enough to combat information they don’t like. Meta’s Oversight Board was conceived as a solution to the perceived bias, and the board has ruled against Meta’s takedown orders many times.
• Vaughn Cockayne can be reached at vcockayne@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.