New board set to mould Facebook content policies

On 6 May, Facebook announced the first 20 members of its Oversight Board, which will handle content takedown disputes on the platform. Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg had first spoken about the board in late 2018. Mint takes a look at what it is likely to achieve.

How will Facebook’s new board function?

The board will function over and above Facebook’s current content moderation systems. It will come into play once the company’s artificial intelligence algorithms and human moderators have acted on a piece of content. Its decisions will be binding and Facebook has publicly committed that it will abide by the board’s rulings. The board can overturn Facebook’s decisions and will try to take cases that affect a wide number of people. It will be looking at disputes about posts, pages, profiles, groups and even advertisements. Its decisions will influence Facebook’s overall content policies as well.