Two weeks before the US presidential election, the Oversight Board says it has “serious concerns” about Meta’s content moderation systems in “election contexts” and that the company risks seeing “excessive suppression of political speech » when she applies her rules too much. The reprimand comes as the board looks into a matter involving a satirical image of Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

Meta had initially deleted the post, shared on Facebook in August, which showed an edited version of a movie poster from Stupid and dumber. The original poster for the 1994 film shows the two main characters grabbing each other’s nipples through their shirts. In the edited version, the actors’ faces were replaced with Harris and Walz.

According to the Oversight Board, Meta cited its rules on bullying and harassment, which include a provision prohibiting “derogatory photoshops or sexualized drawings.” The social network later restored the post after it came to the attention of the Oversight Board, and the company acknowledged that the satirical image did not violate its rules because it did not depict sexual activity.

Despite Meta’s reversal, the board says the case suggests larger problems in how Meta handles posts covering election-related content. “This message is nothing more than a banal satirical image of prominent politicians and is immediately recognizable as such,” the committee wrote. “Nevertheless, the company’s failure to recognize the nature of this message and address it accordingly raises serious concerns about the systems and resources Meta has to effectively make content decisions in such election contexts. “

It’s an unusually direct criticism from the Oversight Board, which released its analysis of the case in a summary decision, without the group’s typical long list of recommendations for the social media company. The board of directors has already imposed its rules on satirical content on Meta. The latest case highlights another problem that many of the company’s users have also complained about: over-enforcement of its rules.

“In this case, however, the Board highlights the over-enforcement of Meta’s bullying and harassment policy with respect to satire and political speech in the form of derogatory non-sexualized depictions of political figures “, wrote the Council. “It also highlights the dangers that over-enforcement of the intimidation and harassment policy can present, particularly in the context of an election, as it can lead to excessive suppression of political speech and compromise the ability to criticize government officials and political candidates, including in elections. in a sarcastic way.