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A group of prominent Facebook critics, including one of the social network’s early investors and a journalist facing jail in the Philippines, are launching their version of a “supervisory board” to rival that of the company.
The group says Facebook is taking too long to establish its oversight panel, which they argue is too limited in scope and autonomy.
Critics, including initial investor Roger McNamee, Philippine journalist Maria Ressa and Shoshana Zuboff, author of Surveillance Capitalism, warn that Facebook is already being used to undermine the integrity of the US presidential election and call for “scrutiny. appropriate independent “company.
The group, however, has no authority over Facebook and is not a real “board.” Rather, the group says it started sounding the alarm about Facebook’s role in the upcoming elections.
Friday’s announcement came a day after Facebook said that its own quasi-independent oversight board, which has faced numerous delays since the company announced its creation in 2018, will launch in October.
Facebook’s own panel is intended to rule on thorny content issues, such as when Facebook or Instagram posts constitute hate speech. You will be empowered to issue binding resolutions on whether posts or advertisements violate company rules. Any other finding you make will be considered a “guide” by Facebook.
Its 20 members, who will eventually reach 40, include a former prime minister of Denmark, the former editor-in-chief of The Guardian newspaper, along with jurists, human rights experts and journalists, such as Nobel laureate Tawakkol Karmanm. and journalist from Yemen, and Julie Owono, advocate for digital rights.
The first four members of the board were directly elected by Facebook. Those four then worked with Facebook to select additional members. Facebook also pays the salaries of board members.
Meanwhile, the critically launched group also includes Toomas Henrik Ilves, a former Estonian president, Derrick Johnson, NAACP president Rashad Robinson, Color of Change president, and Reed Galen, co-founder of the Lincoln Project.
There’s also Ressa, executive director of the news site Rappler, who has criticized Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and was found guilty of defamation and sentenced to prison in June in a decision called a major blow to press freedom in the country. It has been an open criticism of Facebook and said in August that “technology platforms have created a system where lies mixed with anger and hatred spread faster than facts.”
Guardian journalist and Facebook critic Carole Cadwalladr, who helped establish the group, said its goal is “to provide a platform to amplify the voices that must counter Facebook denials and resignations.”
“It is very remarkable that Facebook’s oversight board did not ask anyone who has strongly criticized the platform,” he said.
In a statement Thursday, Facebook said it “conducted a one-year global consultation to establish the Oversight Board as an enduring institution that will provide binding and independent oversight over some of our most difficult content decisions.”
The members, the company added, were selected “for their deep experience in a wide range of subjects. This new endeavor consists primarily of longtime critics creating a new channel for existing critiques. “
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