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The co-chairman of Facebook’s independent board tasked with arbitrating censorship decisions said the company had prevented it from reviewing restrictions on the distribution of posts and other actions that were at the heart of censorship on the platform.
Facebook’s parent company Meta allows the board to review decisions about posts, but does not allow the board to control the distribution of content, actions taken against individual accounts, or facts, said Michael McConnell, co-chair of the Meta Oversight Board.
The Board is tasked with reviewing Meta’s “content moderation”, which Mr. McConnell describes as synonymous with censorship.
Mr McConnell, a former federal judge, said the 20-member board, which began operating in 2020, has already expanded its mandate and wants its portfolio to expand further.
“I bet I’m speaking for everyone else, that’s something we need to look at because lowering access may not be total silencing, but it’s in the same family,” Mr. McConnell said in an interview. “There are the same reasons why it makes sense to audit this independently.”
Reducing the reach of content is key to Facebook’s approach to restricting speech it dislikes.
In one of the most publicized instances, Twitter blocked links to reports by the New York Post and others about emails and documents found on Hunter Biden’s laptop. The restrictions effectively cut off the distribution of news that could potentially harm President Biden ahead of the 2020 election.
Facebook throttled distributed the news and announced the fact-checking program.
Whether Meta will allow the Oversight Board to consider curbing content access on Facebook and Instagram is an open question. Meta declined to comment on the recording of this article.
set up Charter He states that the activities of the Oversight Board will “grow and change,” but Meta still largely makes the decisions necessary for the board’s reach. last year on facebook extended Objections to ripped content, as well as the extent to which the Oversight Board allows the company to review content remaining on its platforms, allowing it to be reviewed.
Much of the board’s understanding of Facebook’s operations comes from outside sources. Mr McConnell said he learned from a newspaper that Facebook was restructuring its business as Meta and has not spoken to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg since joining the board.
He said the two most common complaints he heard about Facebook were closing accounts for arbitrary reasons and checking facts on the platform.
Mr McConnell said he spoke with Meta to set the limits of what the board can review. Those talks often included Meta Vice-Presidents Nick Clegg, former UK deputy prime minister and leader of the country’s Liberal Democrats, and California lawyer Brent Harris, known for advocating for climate change causes as Meta’s director of global affairs, he said. Oversight Board.
Whether restrictions on access to digital content violate the spirit of free speech in America is now a hot topic in Congress’ debate over internet regulation.
In the US, the board’s most prominent decision so far was its review of Facebook’s ban on former President Donald Trump. The board approved the ban last May but instructed the company to conduct an additional review because the board said it was inappropriate to suspend it indefinitely.
Facebook replied By extending Mr Trump’s ban until at least 2023.
Mr McConnell said he saw Facebook potentially establishing a two-year timeline to allow for Mr Trump’s return, significantly different from other platforms that have imposed permanent and indefinite bans. Twitter has permanently banned Mr Trump, and Google-owned YouTube has not defined a specific timeline for when it will allow the former president’s return.
Alongside Facebook and Instagram’s efforts to implement their decisions, the board is also working to gain the support of platform users and stakeholders around the world. Dex Hunter-Torricke, spokesperson for the Oversight Board, said he visited the Spanish Embassy in Washington and spoke with representatives of the European Union about speech and content moderation.
“We’re just a little mermaid swimming in a much larger river with lots of other people trying to find solutions to what is meta and content moderation issues,” said Mr Hunter-Torricke. “And in many cases, our value will be to remove the caption on Facebook and Instagram in any case, learn about the company, diagnose these issues, and then let other actors get involved.”
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