Oversight board urges Meta to rethink its policy on manipulated media in high-stakes election year

By ALI SWENSON
Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — An oversight board is criticizing Facebook owner Meta’s policies on manipulated media as “incoherent” and insufficient to address online disinformation in a major election year. The quasi-independent board said on Monday that an altered video of Joe Biden on Facebook exposed gaps in the policy. The Biden video didn’t violate the company’s policy because it didn’t misrepresent anything he said, but the Meta Oversight Board said such visual content should be labeled in the future. It urged the company to expand its policy to focus on media regardless of how it was created and to label images, videos and audio clips as manipulated instead of removing the posts altogether. Meta said it welcomes the board’s ruling on the Biden video and is reviewing the recommendations.