Facebook Oversight Board to Hear Cases on Content Allowed to Remain on Facebook, Instagram

Facebook’s independent content oversight board is taking on more responsibilities, saying Tuesday that Facebook and Instagram users can now appeal decisions by those platforms to let other users’ content remain online. Since it started receiving applications last October and taking cases last December, the board had been limited to ruling on appeals of decisions by Facebook or Instagram to remove content and to keep that content off the platforms following their re-reviews. Director of oversight board administration Thomas Hughes said in a statement, “Enabling users to appeal content they want to see removed from Facebook is a significant expansion of the oversight board’s capabilities. The board was created to ensure that fewer decisions about highly significant content issues be taken by Facebook alone, and that better decisions can be delivered through an independent and transparent process that works to safeguard human rights and freedom of expression. Today’s announcement is another step toward realizing this.” The group of Facebook critics that calls itself the Real Facebook Oversight Board was not appeased by Tuesday’s news, accusing the company of passing off important content moderation decisions to the board. The group also pointed out that there is no transparency over which cases the oversight board decides to hear or not hear, adding, “Rulings are still based on completely unclear terms and conditions that are not universally enforced.” The Real Facebook Oversight Board said in a statement, “By empowering its oversight board to do their job for them, Facebook is washing its hands of the toughest decisions the company itself should be making. And rather than address content moderation issues across its platforms, it’s turning increasingly to adjudicating random, high-profile cases as cover for the company’s failings, instead of seriously grappling with the systemic content moderation crisis that its algorithms and leadership have created.” The board said it has received over 300,000 user appeals and thousands of public comments to date, adding that content eligible for appeal still includes comments, photos, posts/statuses, shares and videos. Facebook said the ability to appeal content to the oversight board will be rolled out globally in waves, in order to ensure stability of the product experience, and it expects everyone to have access over the coming weeks. The social network also provided a refresher on the content review process. If a user finds content on Facebook or Instagram and feels that it should be taken down, they can report that content. If Facebook decides to allow the content to stand, the person who reported it will receive an oversight board reference ID number in their support inbox, and they can use that number to appeal the decision to the board. Multiple people will be able to report the same piece of content and cite different reasons for doing so, with multiple reports being consolidated into a singe case file for the board. Users can continue to submit statement to the board until deliberations begin. The board will protect the privacy of people who file appeals by only including details that could be used to easily identify them if the person who filed granted it permission to do so. Once the board takes on a case involving content that was allowed to remain on Facebook or Instagram, the case status will be updated on its portal, and the original poster will be notified, at which point they have the option of submitting a statement to provide further context on their content. The poster will also be notified when a final decision is reached. Unilever executive vice president of global media Luis Di Como welcomed Tuesday’s news, saying in a statement, “Unilever has long been committed to creating a safer, more trusted digital ecosystem for society and our brands. We support independent oversight of harmful content on social media. Facebook and the oversight board’s announcement to ensure that every voice is heard on Facebook and Instagram, in a privacy-safe way, is a positive step for the platform and its users.” The opposite was true of the Real Facebook Oversight Board, which said in a statement of its own, “Facebook continues to drink its own Kool-Aid in believing that its vaunted ‘Supreme Court’ will set things right on its platforms. Meanwhile, as we learned from The Guardian this week, disinformation and content aimed at destabilizing democracies continues to run wild.”

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Facebook Oversight Board to Hear Cases on Content Allowed to Remain on Facebook, Instagram

It had previously been limited to ruling on instances of removals from those platforms

David Cohen

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