A scathing decision from Facebook’s Oversight Board shows a better way to work through platform rules in public than via a billionaire’s late night tweets.
Even while objecting to the way Cross Check has been run, the Oversight Board wound up agreeing that a special program was necessary and that it was important to identify cases that needed closer attention. Even if that meant that content from regular schmoes would get short shrift. “In an ideal world, of course, you would have high-quality contextual review for as many people as possible,” says Jamal Greene, a Columbia Law School professor who is one of the board’s cochairs.
The board’s biggest ask is that Cross Check should concentrate on human rights content. The 23-member group concluded that the program is mainly a project set up to kiss the butts of powerful people to help Meta’s business. The Oversight Board recommends changing it into something that makes sure that content protecting human rights doesn’t get removed in error—and that posts from prominent accounts harmful to those rights get taken down quicker.
The board’s other recommendations aim to make Cross Check more transparent, efficient, and accountable. They lay out a long list of requirements and reporting systems. If Meta took all the board’s suggestions, it would have to set up an elaborate new infrastructure to improve the program and document its operation.
Whether or not Meta accepts the recommendations , the report adds another chapter to an experiment that may not have drastically changed Meta but has. Rusbridger says that this is a virtue in itself. “However cynical you want to be about Meta, they're spending an awful lot of money and inviting an awful lot of pain,” he says of the Oversight Board. “I can't see that it's worth it for them, unless there is a sincere belief that we could help them become a better company.
Well if you’re really cynical you could say it’s an effort to stave off regulation. But no matter how you view it, Meta’s effort to set up an independent board is suddenly looking pretty golden in contrast to what’s happening at another prominent platform for online speech.
South Africa Latest News, South Africa Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
U.S. lawmakers push for more oversight of Elon Musk's NeuralinkU.S. House Representatives Earl Francis Blumenauer and Adam Schiff want further U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scrutiny of Elon Musk's Neuralink following a Reuters report that outlined mistakes in the brain chip company's animal testing program, their offices said on Thursday.
Read more »
Scrap Plans for New Chicago Gang Database, Interim Police Oversight Board UrgesThe dispute over the future of the gang database represents the first clash between the Police Department’s leaders and the commission made up of Chicagoans given the authority to set policy for the department in an attempt to restore trust in its operations.
Read more »
Fort Worth oversight office offers advice on interacting with policeThe Fort Worth Officer of the Police Oversight Monitor has created a new brochure meant to give useful advice to those who find themselves in contact with an officer.
Read more »
Ivanka Trump Freed From Court Oversight of Family CompanyIvanka Trump, who keeps distancing herself from her father’s shameful legacy, has successfully sidestepped the watchful gaze of a retired federal judge who was tasked with babysitting the Trump Organization to ensure it stops lying to banks and insurers.
Read more »
City Hall Stands Firm: No Oversight, No Police ContractCity's negotiations with the Austin Police Association hit a major roadblock.
Read more »
Oversight Committee releases report on Commanders investigationThe U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform says the Washington Commanders covered up decades of sexual misconduct according to a new report released Thursday.
Read more »