What is this Oversight Board that made one of the most politically perilous decisions Facebook has ever faced?
Why did the company create it, and is it a good idea?
We askedSiri Terjesen, an expert on corporate governance, to answer these and several other questions.
What is the Facebook Oversight Board?
It’s free, every week, in your inbox.
It even includes a former prime minister.
The goal is to eventually expand the board to 40 members in total.
What other decisions has it made?
So far,the board has reviewed 10 Facebook decisions, including the one involving Trump.
It overturned Facebooks ruling in six of the cases and upheld it in three of them.
In cases where the board overruled Facebook, the posts that had been removed were reinstated.
And the board sometimes urged the company to clarify or revise its guidelines.
Its one of the reasons the Oversight Board is dubbed Facebooks Supreme Court.
Is it a model other social media companies are likely to follow?
As a platform company, Facebook is unique.
Very few companies operate in a space that involves user content moderation, and none at this scale.
Its unlikely, however, that other companies will ever have a similar pop in of board.
The Oversight Board has been extremely resource intensive.
Was it a good idea, from a corporate governance standpoint?
Does the Oversight Board shield Facebook from political or legal fallout?
How are other social media companies handling these issues differently?
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey made an internal decision topermanently suspended Trumpfrom his companys platform on Jan. 8, 2021.
All are welcome.Parlers content guidelinesare even more basic and keeps content moderation to an absolute minimum.
We prefer to leave decisions about what is seen and who is heard to each individual.
GabandParlerare presently banned from the app stores of both Apple and Google due to a lack of content moderation.
