Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, arrives at the House Financial Services Committee to testify in "An Examination Of Facebook and Its Effect on the Financial Services Sectors" in Washington, DC, on October 23, 2019.
Facebook's oversight board reprimanded the platform Thursday for withholding information regarding its content moderation system, which was exposed by The Wall Street Journal via leaked documents.
The board deemed Facebook's failures to provide details about its cross-check program regarding the suspension of President Donald Trump from the platform unacceptable. The Journal reports that the content moderation system protected millions of highly-profile users from the standard procedures used by the company to remove or limit the reach of posts that violate its policies.
"Given the referral included an explicit policy question about account enforcement for political leaders (many of whom the Board believes were covered under cross-check), this omission was not acceptable," the board stated in its transparency report regarding the Trump case. When we inquired about whether Trump's account or page had been subjected to normal content moderation processes, Facebook did not mention cross-check.
According to the board, Facebook acknowledged that it shouldn't have downplayed cross-check's role in a number of decisions. Facebook admitted that the number of content moderation decisions is small, but the board said the company recognized "itsphrasing could be misleading."
A Facebook spokesperson stated that they had received a thank you from the board for "their ongoing work" and for publishing their transparency report. "We believe that the board's work is impactful. That is why we asked for their input into our cross check system. We will try to be more clear in our explanations to them moving forward."
The Oversight Board announced that it would review the cross-check program upon request from Facebook. The Oversight Board will issue a policy advisory opinion about how to modify the program to make them more fair and objective, how they can ensure equal inclusion in the program, and how transparency should be done.
According to the board, its review will include soliciting public comments and engaging with relevant voices, including former Facebook employees who came forward in recent months. Although it didn't include names, this suggests that the board will consult Frances Haugen (the former employee who brought leaked documents about crosscheck to the Journal), and possibly Sophie Zhang (who left the company before Haugen sent a widely circulated message condemning Facebook for its actions).
Facebook will now share documents regarding cross-check with its board. It also promised to provide more context information to assist the board in making decisions.
The Oversight Board is independent from Facebook, but has a charter and funds that the company provides for a specific period. Although the board is responsible for making recommendations to the company and providing advice on complaints from users about its policies, Facebook retains the final say over whether or not to follow the board's advice.
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