Meta now lets users post calls for violence against Venezuelan ‘colectivos’

Meta should allow users to post “aspirational” statements for Venezuelan paramilitary groups to be killed, the Oversight Board ruled in a decision released on Thursday. The board’s ruling involves two posts on Facebook and Instagram in the wake of Venezuela’s contested presidential election, both of which were captioned with calls for violence against members of paramilitary groups, called colectivos. The board found that these posts were “statements expressing a hope that violent actors will be killed,” rather than specific calls for violence, and therefore said they don’t violate Meta’s rules.

The board’s decision noted the “limited outlets for free expression” in Venezuela and the colectivos’ role “in the violent crackdown against protesters” in the aftermath of the election. The two Venezuelan cases were decided on an expedited basis due to “exceptional circumstances, including when content could result in urgent real-world consequences.” 

Moderators had removed one post — a Facebook video depicting a group of men on motorbikes who presumably belonged to a colectivo, with a caption urging people to “kill those damn colectivos” — for violating Meta’s rules against inciting violence. The second post — an Instagram video in which a woman told men presumed to be members of a colectivo, “Go to hell, I hope they kill you all” — was not removed, because it expressed “a conditional or aspirational statement against a violent actor rather than a call to action,” the board wrote.

The board upheld the decision not to take down the Instagram post and overturned the decision to remove the Facebook post.

“Meta’s policies distinguish between permitted ‘statements expressing a hope that violent actors will be killed,’ and prohibited ‘calls for action against violence actors,’” the board wrote in a press release. “Meta finds this balance ‘particularly difficult’ in the context of violent threats against colectivos,” but the board ultimately found that both posts are aspirational statements rather than calls for action. In other words, users can’t make specific threats against colectivos or their members, but they can post vague desires that colectivo members be killed.

In December 2023, the board overturned Meta’s decision to take down a video showing people breaking into a police station in Haiti, which prompted Meta to update its rules to allow exceptions for “threats when shared in an awareness-raising or condemning context” or when calling for “threats against violent actors, like terrorist group.”