Meta Oversight board wants clear rules against child marriage
Meta, owner of Facebook and Instagram, should clarify rules to make sure that the taking down of posts promoting forced marriages include child marriages, the company’s Oversight board says. “Child marriage, which disproportionately affects girls, is a form of forced marriage and gender-based violence and discrimination.”
In January 2024, an Instagram user posted a short video from a beauty salon service in Iran. In the video, a beautician gives a child a make-up preparing for the child’s marriage. Meta took down the post after complaints and the board agrees with that decision but wants better definitions against forced marriages.
Speaking in Farsi, the child confirms her age is 14 years and when asked by the beautician, she reveals the groom’s family made persistent requests before her father “gave her to them.”
The beautician and child talk about prioritizing marriage over education and admire the results of the make-up transformation.
The content was viewed about 10.9 million times.
The Board recommends that Meta:
- Modify the Human Exploitation policy to explicitly state that forced marriages include child marriage.
- Additionally, modify the policy to define child marriage in line with international human rights standards to include marriage and informal unions of children under 18 years of age.
- Provide explicit guidance to human reviewers about child marriage being included in the definition of forced marriages.
The Board says its recommendations seek “to clarify Meta’s public language and internal guidance to ensure such content is removed, and to specify that forced marriages include child marriage and involve children aged under 18 years.”
Child marriage, which the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights defines as “any formal marriage or informal union between a child under the age of 18 and an adult or another child,” is considered a form of forced marriage, and as a human rights violation by international and regional bodies.
Child marriages are legal in certain jurisdictions but defined as a violation of human rights law by others.
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