Facebook oversight panel to review takedown requests

NEW YORK • Facebook's independent Oversight Board announced on Tuesday it would start accepting requests to remove "harmful content" that users believe has been wrongly allowed to remain on the leading social network.

The move has the potential to vastly expand the work of the so-called "supreme court" of Facebook, which up to now had been tasked with reviewing instances of whether content was improperly taken down from Facebook or Instagram.

The Oversight Board, set up by Facebook to deal with contentious questions of content moderation, began operating last year and issued its first rulings in January.

The decisions, which can overrule Facebook management, are binding.

"Enabling users to appeal content they want to see removed from Facebook is a significant expansion of the Oversight Board's capabilities," said Mr Thomas Hughes, director of the body's administration.

He added: "The board was created to ensure that fewer decisions about highly significant content issues be taken by Facebook alone and that better decisions can be delivered through an independent and transparent process that works to safeguard human rights and freedom of expression. Today's announcement is another step towards realising this."

The announcement comes with Facebook and other social platforms facing intense pressure to act on misinformation and abusive content, ranging from election-related hoaxes to unproven Covid-19 treatments.

Users who feel that harmful posts, photos, videos, comments and shares remain online will be able to appeal to the panel to have them removed.

As part of the new process, the panel will establish procedures including privacy protections for users seeking takedown requests.

"We expect everyone on Facebook and Instagram to be able to appeal content left up over the coming weeks," said Mr Guy Rosen, head of integrity at Facebook.

"We're glad the Oversight Board is expanding its scope and impact, and look forward to its future decisions and recommendations."

Ms Emily Bell, director of the Columbia University Tow Centre for Digital Journalism, said the change means "a very big escalation of the remit of the Oversight Board", and could move Facebook closer to transformation into a media company.

"This is what a news-driven media company does and this is what Facebook is. Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg cannot do this himself nor can his board of directors and senior executives," she said on Twitter.

"So the Oversight Board becomes in fact a default editorial board."

Members of Facebook's Oversight Board come from various countries and include jurists, human rights activists, journalists, a Nobel Peace laureate and a former Danish prime minister.

The panel is reviewing tens of thousands of cases, including Facebook's decision to ban former United States president Donald Trump.

In one ruling issued on Tuesday, the panel upheld Facebook's decision to remove a video posted by someone in the Netherlands showing a young child meeting adults with their faces painted black, dressed to portray "Zwarte Piet", or Black Pete, a folklore personality known in the region as a companion of Saint Nicholas.

"The Oversight Board upheld Facebook's decision after a majority found sufficient evidence of harm to justify the removal," said the board, noting that the images are linked to "racist stereotypes".

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE