Message from the Oversight Board to Facebook: the internal working method is inadequate, De Vreese analyzes. “That is quite fundamental criticism. The council is saying that Facebook cannot just outsource difficult decisions.”
Beforehand, the judgment was seen as the first important test for the organ that has yet to prove itself. After all, it is not a regulator established by a government, not a court, but an initiative of Facebook itself. Designed so that the company cannot be blamed for one person, Mark Zuckerberg, who determines what the more than 2.8 billion users worldwide see.
Twenty experts
The Oversight Board consists of twenty people from outside of Facebook. It includes former Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt of Denmark, as well as a former editor-in-chief of The Guardian, lawyers and human rights experts. They are paid by a foundation funded by Facebook.
“There has been a lot of discussion about the independent nature of the council,” says professor De Vreese. “In this decision you can see that the council does not mind putting its finger on a number of sore spots.”
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