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Standard Case 2025-020-FB-MR, 2025-021-FB-MR
Today, May 7, 2025, the Oversight Board selected a case bundle referred by Meta regarding two videos posted to Facebook that show teachers hitting children in school settings.
The first piece of content concerns a video posted by a media organization in India. The video shows a teacher yelling at a young school student for not studying, repeatedly hitting his head, and appearing to pull at his turban. The child's face is partially blurred, though he periodically moves his face out of the blurring range, and the teacher and other students are all visible. The caption notes that a state official has called for accountability.
The second piece of content concerns a video posted by a page in France that appears to share local news. The video shows a group of very young children in an educational setting, with a teacher hitting a crying child who then falls to the ground while other children watch. All faces are blurred in this video. The caption references the specific neighborhood where the incident was apparently filmed and mentions an investigation.
Meta determined that both pieces of content violated our Child Sexual Exploitation, Abuse, and Nudity policy, as laid out in the Meta Community Standards, and removed them from our platform. However, upon further review of the second case, Meta decided that the newsworthiness allowance applies and restored the content with a warning label.. Media reported that the child's parents' attorney had shared the video, therefore, Meta determined that the public interest value outweighed the harm, as the parents' consent mitigated the privacy and dignity concerns.
Meta referred these cases to the Board because we found them significant and difficult as they create tension between our values of safety, voice, and dignity.
Under our Child Sexual Exploitation, Abuse, and Nudity policy, Meta removes "videos or photos that depict real or non-real non-sexual child abuse regardless of sharing intent," with no exceptions and regardless of the intent, to prioritize the safety, dignity, and privacy of the minor.
We will implement the Board's decision once it has finished deliberating, and will update this post accordingly. Please see the Board's website for the decision when they issue it.
Case decision
We welcome the Oversight Board's decision today, July 31, 2025, on this case bundle. The Board upheld Meta's decision to leave up the content with warning labels in the French case and overturned Meta's decision to remove the content in the Indian case.
Meta will comply with the Board's decisions and reinstate the content with warning labels in the Indian case within 7 days.
When it is technically and operationally possible to do so, we will also take action on content that is identical and in the same context as this case. For more information, please see our Newsroom post about how we implement the Board's decisions.
After conducting a review of the recommendations provided by the Board, we will update this post with initial responses to those recommendations.
