Meta’s Oversight Board restores meme showing Harris and Walz as ‘Dumb and Dumber’
Meta’s Oversight Board on Wednesday overturned Facebook’s decision to remove a meme that poked fun at the Democratic presidential ticket as characters from the hit film “Dumb and Dumber.”
Mark Zuckerberg-led Facebook — which famously censored The Post’s Hunter Biden laptop coverage — took down a post in August that photoshopped the faces of Kamala Harris and her running mate Tim Walz onto those of the 1994 movie’s stars, Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels.
The doctored movie poster, showing Harris and Walz “grabbing each other’s nipples through their clothing,” was flagged for violating Facebook’s policy against bullying and harassment, which bars “derogatory sexualized photoshop or drawings,” according to the Oversight Board’s review.
The user appealed to the Oversight Board, which reviews Meta’s content moderation decisions. After being approached by the board, Meta restored the post.
The Oversight Board – which sparked outage last month after determining the anti-Israel phrase “from the river to the sea” doesn’t constitute hate speech – said Wednesday the meme was “nothing more than a commonplace satirical image of prominent politicians and is instantly recognizable as such.”
The board did not publish an image of the user’s original post or meme, but similar versions of the meme that matched its description were viewable online.
In its summary of the case, the board flagged concerns that Meta’s “over-enforcement” of the bullying and harassment policy in the context of an election “may lead to the excessive removal of political speech and undermine the ability to criticize government officials and political candidates, including in a sarcastic manner.”
“Protecting social media users’ right to free speech is a core principle for the Oversight Board. The overwhelming majority of our decisions are to ‘leave up’ or restore content that was removed by Meta,” Oversight Board Co-Chair Michael McConnell said in a statement.
“Platforms should be a place where political debate and discussion can flourish, particularly during elections, protests, and other social movements,” McConnell added. “The Board will continue holding Meta accountable to ensure its policies and enforcement are applied fairly.”
The Oversight Board issued a “summary decision” on the case, which is described as an instance in which “Meta has reversed its original decision on a piece of content after the board brought it to the company’s attention.”
When reached for comment, a Meta spokesperson confirmed that the company has reinstated the post.
“We mistakenly removed this post but restored it after the issue was brought to our attention,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
Meta has faced intense criticism over its content moderation practices in recent years.
A remorseful Zuckerberg sparked an uproar in August after he admitted that the Biden-Harris administration had pressured Facebook to suppress COVID-related content during the height of the pandemic, including lighthearted memes and satire.
Elsewhere, the advisory board, which is funded by Meta but claims to be independent, has recently faced questions about its impartiality.
As The Post reported, several members of the 21-member board had espoused views critical of Israel’s actions in Gaza in recent years.
Last month, the advisory board determined that Facebook and Instagram users can use the slogan “from the river to the sea” so long as they are not glorifying Hamas or calls for violence.
The slogan refers to the idea of a Palestinian state stretching across the land in between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea – the land currently controlled by Israel.
Several prominent Jewish groups condemned the board’s decision. The Combat Antisemitism Movement called the determination “absurd” and said it would fuel the spread of antisemitism online.
