Facebook has unveiled a plan to create an independent board which will decide how the network is moderated.
Dubbed the ‘Facebook supreme court’, its 11-strong part-time board is penned to begin in November 2020 and will eventually comprise of around 40 members around the world.
Facebook said the goal of the board would be to provide oversight of Facebook’s content decisions, reverse Facebook’s decisions when necessary, and to act as an independent authority outside of Facebook.
It hopes the board, still to be announced, will contain people from a variety of backgrounds.
Users wishing to harness the powers of the board must have exhausted the traditional appeals of its moderation system, said Facebook.
It is still unclear how the board will balance the transparency of its decisions with the
“The board will be an advocate for our community — supporting people’s right to free expression, and making sure we fulfil our responsibility to keep people safe,” wrote Mark Zuckerberg in a blog post.
“As an independent organization, we hope it gives people confidence that their views will be heard, and that Facebook doesn’t have the ultimate power over their expression.”
Zuckerburg said he believed the firm was responsible for enforcing its policies but that he did not believe private companies like Facebook should make important decisions about speech on its own.
Facebook expects the board will consider only a handful of cases a year that are in the “greatest public benefit”.
The announcement comes in the same week the social network begins working with London police on data-sharing for counter-terrorism.
The Metropolitan Police will share body-cam footage of its firearms training with Facebook in an effort to better recognise live-streams of attacks.
The video will also be given to government for use by other firms also developing tech to stop live-streamed violence on the internet.