Oversight board facebook theverge
If the board operates as planned, it will have the ability to overrule Zuckerberg himself on matters of what content is and isn’t allowed on the service. This is an extraordinary and mostly unprecedented undertaking from a private company which recognizes the potential impact of its decisions. We had personal discussions with more than 250 people and received over 1,200 public consultation submissions,” wrote Brent Harris, Facebook’s director of governance and global affairs. “We have traveled around the world hosting six in-depth workshops and 22 roundtables attended by more than 650 people from 88 different countries. That board, which will be made up of a diverse group of about 40 people from around the world, will be like what The Verge called a “Supreme Court for content moderation.” The board, according to Facebook, will serve as an “independent authority outside of Facebook,” and have the power to “reverse Facebook’s decisions when necessary.”įacebook is going to great lengths to assure that this board has a global perspective. Yet, when it comes to some decisions, even Zuckerberg realizes that the stakes are too high for one person or one company to hold all the cards, and that’s one of the reason’s Facebook is in the process of putting together an Oversight Board for Content Decisions. And, because of his vast stock holdings in the company, CEO Mark Zuckerberg is effectively in complete control. Are pictures of people being tortured or beheaded gratuitous violence or terrorist propaganda or could they be legitimate news stories or rightfully posted to elicit outrage for horrible acts? Years ago, its policies against nudity were successfully challenged by moms wanting to show pictures of themselves nursing.Īs a publicly traded private company, Facebook is accountable to its stockholders, not the public at large.
The company recently changed its policy to ban expressions of white nationalism and white supremacy just as some, including President Donald Trump, have accused the company of discriminating against conservatives.
Sometimes the right decisions seem pretty obvious, but at other times, there are nuances and competing rights and interests to be considered. There have been numerous public arguments about what constitutes acceptable speech on Facebook. And images that are perfectly acceptable in some cultures are considered vulgar - and perhaps illegal - in others.
#OVERSIGHT BOARD FACEBOOK THEVERGE FREE#
But aside from the fact that Facebook lacks the legitimacy of a sovereign nation, its job is even harder than that of legislators and judges because it operates globally, in countries with very different laws and traditions including the U.S., which has a strong tradition of free speech, Europe where free speech is limited by laws banning hate speech, and other places where authoritarian regimes have imposed much broader limitations on what people are allowed to say.