According to a blog post, Facebook will change its community guidelines to make it clearer how it handles satirical content, after a suggestion from its Oversight Board.
The post says, “We’ll add material to the Community Standards that makes it clear where we evaluate satire as part of our consideration of context-specific decisions.” “With this adjustment, teams will be able to take satire into account when evaluating potential Hate Speech infractions.”
The change was made after Facebook’s Oversight Board determined that removing a user’s statement about the Turkish government based on the two buttons meme was improper.
Facebook banned the item, citing its Cruel and Insensitive Community Standard, which stipulates that memes and gifs that target “victims of serious bodily or mental injury” will be removed. Facebook then classified the removal as coming under its Hate Speech Community Standard.
While Facebook has stated that it will make exceptions for satire, the Oversight Board noted in its report that the company’s guidelines do not explain how or what counts as satire. In a blog post, Facebook stated that, in addition to clarifying its parody policy, it will “initiate a review of identical content with parallel context,” and that it may take further action.