On Tuesday, Facebook laid out how its content oversight board, whose decisions can’t be overturned by the company, will work in a final charter. The company still has other details to work out, but the release of the final charter signals that Facebook intends to move forward with its plans.
According to the company, the board will have at least 11 members and up to 40, each serving three-year terms in a part-time capacity. The body will have the ability to make decisions about specific cases but will not be able to change Facebook’s policies. The board will be able to issue policy recommendations for the company to consider.
Major disputes will be escalated to the board once all of Facebook’s existing moderation layers had been exhausted. Facebook controls which cases are submitted to the board, although board members will decide which of those cases to take on.
Facebook says every content controversy would not be considered for board review. The process is intended for those cases where a clear decision would be in “the greatest public benefit”.
Users affected will be allowed to state their case in a written statement, but Facebook said it anticipated some board members may wish to speak to users “face-to-face”.
“We are responsible for enforcing our policies every day and we make millions of content decisions every week,” Zuckerberg said in a statement. “But ultimately I don’t believe private companies like ours should be making so many important decisions about speech on our own.”
Facebook said for the initial formation of the board, it will pick a group of co-chairs, who (along with Facebook) will then jointly select candidates for the remainder of the board seats. After the initial Oversight Board is established, a committee of the board will select candidates to serve as board members “based on a review of the candidates’ qualifications and a screen for disqualifications,” the company says in the charter document.
Still, Facebook will have to prove to the public that the board is truly independent and that it can safeguard user privacy as the new body weighs in on some of its most controversial decisions.
