San Francisco, May 6
Facebook on Wednesday selected first 20 members of its independent content oversight board that will make binding decisions on what content Facebook and Instagram should allow or remove, in order to ensure good governance and accountability across its services and platforms.

The four Co-Chairs and 16 members speak at least 29 languages and represent diverse professional, cultural, political, and religious backgrounds and viewpoints.

"Over time we expect to grow the Board to around 40 members. While we cannot claim to represent everyone, we are confident that our global composition will underpin, strengthen and guide our decision-making," said Brent Harris, Director of Governance and Global Affairs at Facebook.

The social networking platform has established a $130 million trust for the Oversight Board, which funds all operations and cannot be revoked.

"Facebook must implement the Board's decisions, unless implementation could violate the law," Harris added.

All Board members are independent of Facebook and all other social media companies.

"Members contract directly with the Oversight Board, are not Facebook employees and cannot be removed by Facebook." The company informed.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in 2018 first spelt out his vision for what content governance should look like for Facebook.

The Oversight Board will review content enforcement decisions and determine whether they are consistent with Facebook and Instagram's content policies and values, as well as a commitment to upholding freedom of expression within the framework of international norms of human rights.

All decisions will be made public, and Facebook must respond publicly to them.

"The Board will issue a public annual report to evaluate its work and how Facebook is meeting its commitments," said Brent Harris, Facebook's head of governance and global affairs.

In recent years, the question of what content should stay up or come down, and who should decide this, has become increasingly urgent for society.

Every content decision made by Facebook impacts people and communities. All of them deserve to understand the rules that govern what they are sharing, how these rules are applied, and how they can appeal those decisions.

The Oversight Board represents a new model of content moderation for Facebook and Instagram am will review content referred to it by both users and Facebook.

"When we begin hearing cases later this year, users will be able to appeal to the Board in cases where Facebook has removed their content, but over the following months we will add the opportunity to review appeals from users who want Facebook to remove content," said the company.

Users who do not agree with the result of a content appeal to Facebook can refer their case to the Board by following guidelines that will accompany the response from Facebook. At this stage the Board will inform the user if their case will be reviewed.

The Board can also review content referred to it by Facebook. This could include many significant types of decisions, including content on Facebook or Instagram, on advertising, or Groups.

The Board will also be able to make policy recommendations to Facebook based on our case decisions, said Facebook.

Sudhir Krishnaswamy from India on Facebook content oversight board

New Delhi, May 6 (IANS) Facebook on Wednesday selected first 20 members for its independent content oversight board and one of the members is Sudhir Krishnaswamy who is Vice Chancellor of the National Law School of India University in Bengaluru.

Krishnaswamy is part of the team that will review content enforcement decisions and determine whether they are consistent with Facebook and Instagram's content policies and values, as well as a commitment to upholding freedom of expression within the framework of international norms of human rights.

"Content moderation and content control has been a problem in most jurisdictions around the world, India being one of the most affected. Currently content is controlled either by private companies or the government," said Krishnaswamy.

"Creating this new mechanism for platform governance to oversee a private company is a radical reform; if this mechanism works, it provides us with a new institutional model for handling content moderation in the future. This is as important to the future of democracy as it is to the market," he emphasized.

Krishnaswamy is also Co-Founder of the Center for Law and Policy Research which works to advance constitutional values for everyone, including LGBTQ+ and transgender persons in India, through research, advocacy and impact litigation.

Previously, he was the Director of the School of Policy and Governance and Professor of Law and Politics at Azim Premji University, as well as the Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Visiting Professor of Indian Constitutional Law at Columbia Law School.

Krishnaswamy graduated with a BA LLB from the National Law School of India University and, as a Rhodes Scholar, read for a Bachelors of Civil Law and a Doctor of Philosophy (Law) from the University of Oxford.

Dr Krishnaswamy was a part of the founding team of the Alternative Law Forum which has evolved radical forms of alternative lawyering rooted in marginalized groups.

He is also co-founder of the Centre for Law and Policy Research, which aims to redefine the concept and practice of public interest lawyering in India and ensure that the Constitution works for everyone.

A former Rhodes Scholar, Krishnaswamy has taught law at universities in the United Kingdom, India, Australia, and at Columbia Law School in the United States.

Krishnaswamy has cautioned on the importance of ensuring that regulatory frameworks governing content platforms are "consistent with our constitutional and political values of our democracy" and that "excessive and dangerous discretion in the hands of regulating officers of the government" could "lead to violation of basic human rights and constitutionally protected fundamental rights of citizens."

Facebook hands over content decisions to members of the public