Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/BRUSSELS: Meta Platforms’ Oversight Board announced Tuesday that it would review more types of content moderation cases and expedite some decisions as it aims to expand its work.
The board was created in late 2020 to review Instagram and Facebook’s decisions on taking down and leaving up certain content or making rulings on whether to uphold and overturn the social media company’s actions. Since then, the board has published 35 case decisions, it said in a blog post.
The board said it would now begin publishing decisions on some cases on an expedited basis. Rulings could come as quickly as 48 hours after accepting a case, while others could take up to 30 days.
Legal decisions, in which an Oversight Board reviews Meta’s content moderation actions in depth, can take up to 90 days.
Publishing more decisions and increasing the pace will “let us tackle more of the big challenges of content moderation and respond more quickly in situations with urgent real-world consequences,” the board said in the blog post.
Unlike legal decisions, expedited cases would be reviewed by a panel of board members instead of the full board and would not consider public comments.
Meta users
One recent ruling by the oversight board was to allow Meta users to use the slogan “death to Khamenei” for Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in the context of ongoing protests in Iran.
The oversight board said it would also begin publishing summary decisions to analyze cases in which Meta changed its mind about leaving up and taking down posts. Such circumstances could help Meta avoid similar mistakes in the future and may be helpful for researchers and civil society.
