When the board began last year, only Facebook HQ could ask it to review something. Giving users the option to ask the board to address a complaint is a significant expansion of its power and role within the massive business.
The Oversight Board is Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s answer to growing criticism over how his company handles the spread of information across its platform. Zuckerberg has long been reluctant to play an active role in policing what’s posted, and by agreeing to honor whatever decision the Oversight Board makes, he hopes to escape further pressure to do so.
The board contains 20 social media experts from across the worldwide, many of them academics and think tank wonks. It has purview over such items as posts, photos, videos and comments on both Facebook and Instagram. Importantly, it’s not required to review every complaint—much like how the U.S. Supreme Court chooses its cases.
While the board is a meaningful step in curbing misinformation on Facebook, the fledging agency has made only a handful of decisions so far, making it hard to assess whether it is a sufficient enough solution to Facebook’s misinformation problem. It’s currently going through its biggest test yet:
abebrown716 Just took about privacy
abebrown716 Who still uses Facebook enough to complain
abebrown716 Good design is having less complaints honestly.
abebrown716 Resistance is futile, you will be assimilated
abebrown716 wow
abebrown716 I’m taking my ball and bat and I’m going home. Boo hoo
abebrown716 What.......by ignoring them in a different way?
abebrown716 Cuz canceling facebook is too difficult? 🤷🏻♀️ facebook users know that they are the commodity, right?