And so there are some efforts to make it genuinely independent.” They have taken some steps in putting money in a trust and creating an independent set of trustees that oversee the board itself. They wouldn’t have done this if they didn’t think it was good for business.
#Facebook oversight aboutfacebook free#
Suzanne Nossel, a Facebook Oversight Board member and CEO of the free expression organization PEN America, told CNN Business last week, “Obviously, Facebook has its own motives in this. The trustees are “responsible for safeguarding the independence” of the board.Ĭritics of the company argue the board is not truly independent and is a “Facebook-paid, Facebook-appointed body created by Facebook to use to launder its most politically sensitive decisions.” Facebook funds a trust that, in turn, funds the board. The board is designed to be independent of Facebook, according to its charter. Included among the 20 current members of the board are notable individuals from around the world, including Helle Thorning-Schmidt, former prime minister of Denmark Alan Rusbridger, former editor-in-chief of The Guardian and Tawakkol Karman, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who promoted non-violent change in Yemen during the Arab Spring, a movement in which social media played an important role.īut the board just does whatever Facebook wants, right? After some delay, the company announced in October 2020 that the board would begin to hear cases. Facebook says that decisions made by the board are final.įacebook first announced its intention to form an independent entity to vet content decisions in November 2018. It’s made up of 20 experts in areas like free expression, human rights, and journalism.Ĭontent moderation decisions – for instance, removing or not removing a particular post – made by Facebook and Instagram can be appealed to the board once users have gone all the way through the company’s internal review process. The board is an independent, court-like entity for appealing content decisions on Facebook-owned platforms.
So what exactly is the Facebook Oversight Board? The board gave Facebook six months to reevaluate the action taken on Trump’s account and to apply some consequence consistent with its own rules.įacebook Vice President of Global Affairs and Communications Nick Clegg said in a statement after the ruling that Facebook will “consider the board’s decision and determine an action that is clear and proportionate.” However, the board ruled that Facebook’s imposition of an “indefinite” suspension was inappropriate, as “indefinite suspensions” are not described as a potential outcome in Facebook’s content policies. 6 from the former President “severely violated Facebook’s Community Standards and Instagram’s Community Guidelines,” which prohibit posts that praise of people engaged in violence. The board upheld Facebook’s decision to suspend Trump’s accounts, writing in its decision that two posts on Jan. Zuckerberg wrote at the time, “We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great.” Trump’s accounts were suspended indefinitely.įacebook later referred the case to its independent Oversight Board. Trump had access to his Facebook and Facebook-owned Instagram accounts cut off on January 7, a day after the deadly insurrection in Washington DC. Remind me, what happened to Trump’s Facebook account? Below, some frequent questions and answers about the board to help you get up to speed. If the idea of a Supreme Court for a social network leaves you with a lot of questions, well, you’re not the only one. The company must review the case and decide on a definite time period for the suspension - a permanent ban would be allowed, so long as it is not indefinite - within six months, the board ruled. The board’s decision, announced Wednesday, upheld Facebook’s move to suspend Trump from its platforms, but said Facebook could not impose what it called the “arbitrary” penalty of an “indefinite” suspension. The decision was made by the Facebook Oversight Board, an independent body often described as a kind of Supreme Court for Facebook. So who made that call? Well, surprisingly, not company founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The decision not to allow former President Donald Trump back on Facebook is the biggest, most contentious and most controversial single content moderation determination the company has ever made.
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