Oversight of Facebook Must be Independent, Transparent, & Based on Human Rights

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As more people spend more time online, and more time on Facebook, the more necessary it is for independent, transparent, and human rights-based oversight of Facebook.

The importance and influence of the Internet in our lives is only getting greater, making the need to deal with the challenges it poses for public safety, security, and rights ever more acute. 

For all the opportunities and possibilities that online platforms provide, there are also risks and dangers. Facebook has become central to so much of modern life - from the mundane to the murderous. It is how we remember our friends' birthdays, but it is also where lies and misinformation are spread, where the massacre of 51 people in Christchurch is broadcast live to the world, where genocidal hatred against the Rohingya people is fomented.

As such it is essential that Facebook has effective tools to moderate the content users put on its various platforms and pages, in such a way that  respects freedom of expression. Tools based around Community Standards and Artificial Intelligence are not currently up to the standard required by this challenge.

There needs to be a right to appeal decisions made to moderate content through a process based on human rights principles. This process should be independent from Facebook’s commercial interests. We recognise the announcement of Facebook’s Oversight Board as an important step, but to have any chance of addressing the problem it must keep the review process independent from any influence, transparent, and respectful of Human Rights. This is the framework to which the Oversight Board should refer when prioritizing values like safety and voice, privacy and equality.

As a network of activists and change makers, we care deeply about freedom of speech and expression, the voices of our community, their safety and security. We are also well aware of the role that Facebook and its platforms like WhatsApp and Instagram play in public life - their importance in politics, elections, and governing. It is not by accident that the Facebook employee to announce the Oversight Board is himself a former deputy prime minister. As important as the board’s independence is its membership and the constituencies representated on the board. 

Facebook clearly aspires to prove that it can design its own form of effective regulation. In taking on a process that would normally be done by politicians, Facebook has not managed to escape politics, and there are serious questions to be raised about the proposed membership of the board. If a self-regulatory model is to work, Facebook must respond to the weaknesses identified in its process and do so quickly.

As it is currently proposed, we do not have confidence that the Middle East and North Africa is properly represented on the Oversight Board. While this is a serious weakness, it is one that Facebook should be able to address simply and swiftly if they are serious in their intent.

In his letter explaining the purpose and goals of the Oversight Board, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook stated his organization was “committing to preserving and protecting the board’s ability to exercise its independent judgement. And we’re committing to providing the board with the information and resources it needs to make informed decisions.” We must hold Facebook accountable to these commitments but also to making sure there will be no influence on the Oversight Board to take partial or prejudicial decisions against the community of users.

We join with the UN Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression, in his report for the UN Human Rights Council in highlighting the potential model for other content-driven technology industries to put forward a transparent and inclusive content moderation process.  

Facebook has rapidly become extraordinarily rich and extraordinarily influential without demonstrating it has the capacity to act responsibly. The Oversight Board is perhaps Facebook’s last chance to prove it can be a responsible company, we will be watching it closely.