Social-Media
The Independent oversight Board of Facebook is now accepting cases
Facebook's long-awaited Supervisory Board announced Thursday that it is now accepting cases. The board, first revealed by Social Media Behemoth in 2018, is intended to act as an impartial check on Facebook's moderation decisions.
The Board is comprised of independent representatives from around the world who will make final and binding decisions about what content Facebook and Instagram should allow or ban on the basis of respect for freedom of speech and human rights. Our focus has been on creating an organization that is not only about responding to a particular movement or following a specific news cycle, but about upholding human rights and freedom of speech over the long term, Chief Executive Officer Thomas Hughes said in a Thursday call to reporters.
Members of the 40-person board of directors were introduced in May, including the former prime minister, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and the Guardian editor, who supervised the publishing of the Snowden leaks.
Each board member will serve a three-year term, and Facebook will position $130 million in an irrevocable trust to finance its operations. Facebook has promised that it will not intervene with the decision-making of the Board.
The Board will hear only cases involving material that have been deleted from Facebook. Individual users can bring appeals to the board, and Facebook, as a corporation, would be allowed to refer cases for expedited review if they may have immediate, real-world implications. The Board has absolute authority as to whether to approve or deny cases referred to by Facebook.
Brent Harris, Facebook's director of governance and global affairs, said on a call that the company would not submit any cases for expedited review before the US presidential election on 3 November.
Users will not be able to flag third-party content that Facebook has agreed to leave on the site, at least not yet. Columbia Law Professor Jamal Greene, co-chair of the Board, said this feature would be introduced "in the coming months."
Board members will turn to a case selection committee, which will assess and pick cases for consideration by a majority vote of the committee. Each case will be allocated to a five-member jury, which will include at least one member from the subject field under examination. The Board will determine whether the content violates Facebook's community standards and values and whether it complies with international human rights standards and standards.
We can not hear every appeal simply because the amount to be submitted is too high, but we want our decisions to be influential and to have an impact beyond the particular case, Greene said.
Helle Thorning-Schmidt, former Prime Minister of Denmark and co-chair of the Supervisory Board, said case decisions will be released and archived on the Board 's website, providing information used to make its decisions.
Facebook must follow the decisions of the Board, unless there is a legal requirement to restrict access to content, Thorning-Schmidt said, and Facebook will report any actions it takes.
We will, of course, keep the organization responsible for its dedication, she said.
The Board also voted to introduce a public comment period prior to the commencement of the discussion of a case , in order to allow third parties to exchange insights and perspectives. Users will be able to sign up to receive updates when new cases are reported on the website and open for public comment.
While the Board met several times on Zoom to set up its procedures, Greene said that it did not meet to address substantive problems or what cases it might consider. It's possible, now that we've begun, that we're going to have meaningful discussions and search for specific kinds of problems to be considered, Greene said. Thorning-Schmidt added that the board would set out unique guidelines for how to pick cases when they start coming in.
Facebook executives are supposed to have little impact on the board's autonomous activity, although the formation of the board was the result of considerable efforts by the company. In an interview with The Information, Zuckerberg said he hopes to extend the independent governance of Facebook if the Supervisory Board succeeds.
Assuming that the model works as expected, I hope to either broaden its function or apply more structured governance to more aspects of our content policies and compliance over time, he said. I 'm enthusiastic about this, and I think it's really important that we establish more independent governance here.
In order to be considered for consideration by the commission, the user must first appeal the initial content decision of Facebook or Instagram and have obtained a final decision. The person filing the appeal must have an active account on the site where the contents have been posted (Facebook or Instagram) and users must file an appeal within 15 days of the final decision of Facebook or Instagram.
The Board shall take its decision within 90 days of the approval of the case for review.
We know, and we've said several times before, that we're not going to be able to fix all content issues on Facebook, Thorning-Schmidt said. The Supervisory Board was not set up to be a rapid fire or an all-encompassing solution, but to include a critical independent analysis of Facebook's approach to moderating some of the most important content issues.
