Feedback mechanisms are pervasive across the nervous system, regulating neural networks through the backpropagation of information at different levels. Neuroanatomical data have shown the presence of feedback neurons within the visual system of $\textit{Drosophila}$, where information such as visual motion is extracted. However, prevailing models of motion detection, as well as other visual features, rely on feedforward networks, so far neglecting feedback adjustments originating from higher hierarchical levels. The functional significance of feedback circuits, particularly inhibitory feedback mechanisms, in early visual processing remains poorly understood. In this study we uncovered a role for two GABAergic feedback neurons in peripheral visual processing, C2 and C3. C2 and C3 are heavily interconnected especially in motion-detection circuits. Blocking the output of either C2 or C3 leads to enhanced and temporally delayed responses of a major ON pathway neuron and to disinhibited responses to non-preferred stimuli in the downstream ON direction-selective T4 neuron, the output of the motion processing circuit. This disruption results in a decrease of direction selectivity in T4. Blocking C2 and C3 simultaneously even leads to a complete loss of direction-selectivity in T4, arguing for a synergistic role of both neurons. Direction selectivity in the OFF direction-selective T5 neuron is also significantly reduced. At the behavioral level, silencing C2 leads to sustained turning responses and a reduced temporal resolution of behavioral responses to consecutive moving ON stimuli. Together, our data argue for a critical role of inhibitory feedback circuits, implemented by C2 and C3, in maintaining the precision and specificity of neural signaling crucial for the computation of direction-selectivity, a fundamental feature of motion detection.