According to anonymous sources who spoke to The Washington Post, the Board became aware of both videos after they were reshared last year by Libs of TikTok, the far-right propaganda network created by Chaya Raichik, whose posts have been accused of inspiring threats of violence against LGBTQ+ people and bomb threats against schools and hospitals. (Raichik has labeled media reports about those bomb threats “hit piece[s].”) The videos have now been viewed approximately 183,000 times in total, the Board stated in its decision. (Raichik has recently broadened Libs of TikTok’s focus to include anti-immigrant rhetoric alongside anti-LGBTQ+ posts, and accompanied Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on a “ride-along” photo op with ICE agents earlier this month.)

A minority of the panel dissented strongly from the majority, writing that Meta’s decision to leave the videos up presented possible dangers to the individual trans people depicted and to trans people in general. The minority wrote that both videos should have been found to have violated Meta’s previous guidelines, and opined that the minor student should not be considered a “public figure” as media attention over their sports participation was “not within their control.” Leaving the videos live, the minority wrote, risked violating “international human rights law, which requires that this content be removed.”

“The overall intent of these posts would have been clear” under the previous rules, the minority panel members wrote: “as direct and violating attacks that call for exclusion of transgender women and girls from access to bathrooms, participation in sports and inclusion in society, solely based on denying their gender identity.”

The full panel did agree on general “concerns” over Meta’s updated hateful conduct policies, and pushed back on some of the changes that took place in January. “Meta should identify how the policy and enforcement updates may adversely impact the rights of LGBTQIA+ people, including minors, especially where these populations are at heightened risk,” the panel recommended, calling for “measures to prevent and/or mitigate these risks and monitor their effectiveness” as well as the specific removal of the term “transgenderism” from the new policies — a term embraced by the Trump administration and anti-trans conservatives broadly.

“With this ruling, the Oversight Board is both telling Meta to stop its own anti-trans hate, saying the company must remove this dehumanizing rhetoric from its policy, while also giving terrible validation to Meta’s new harmful approach to content moderation,” said GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis in a press release Thursday. Media and communications experts have warned that anti-LGBTQ+ online propaganda is contributing to a rise in targeted violence against LGBTQ+ people; Meta in particular has been accused of failing to curb threats of violence directed at LGBTQ+ people especially in Arab countries, and of directly profiting from the rise in anti-LGBTQ+ “groomer” rhetoric over the past several years.

“This tells LGBTQ people all we need to know about Meta’s attitude towards its LGBTQ users — anti-LGBTQ hate, and especially anti-trans hate is welcome on Meta’s platforms,” Ellis added. “This is not ‘free speech,’ this is harassment that dehumanizes a vulnerable group of people. LGBTQ people’s humanity is not a matter of ‘public debate.’”

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