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Independent entity Facebook Oversight Board is working to create more equitable communities online

With questions of free speech, freedom of expression, and censorship more central than ever, social media sites have increasingly been brought under scrutiny as boundaries have become blurred and sharing is easier than ever before. The recently established Facebook Oversight Board is one mechanism designed to address these conversations, which were brought to light in the seventh program of Salzburg Global Seminar’s Designs On The Future series: How Should Online Speech Be Governed?

The online webinar took place on May 27 with trustee at Facebook Oversight Board Kristina Arriaga and inaugural chair of the Facebook Oversight Board Trust Paul Haaga.

President and CEO of Salzburg Global Seminar Stephen L. Salyer, started the discussion by reminding viewers the Designs On The Future series aims to highlight “the bold and sometimes controversial visions for a more just and sustainable future.”

Salyer recounted his own experiences at a 1974 Salzburg Global program, The Social Impact of Mass Communications, which considered topics including trust and bias, which remain prevalent in 2021. The Salzburg Academy on Media and Global Change was launched just over 30 years later by Salyer to examine the rise of the Internet. With the sustained growth of social communities online, these conversations have continued and evolved.

Coming from a Cuban background, Arriaga grew up against a backdrop of censorship. It filled her with a sense of what freedom of expression looked like. She calls Facebook “the largest country in the world,” owing to its 2.9 billion users, who are free to use the platform as they like. As Haaga pointed out, it is a “bulletin board,” as opposed to being an independent publisher. “Facebook is a place where other people’s views are posted, rather than becoming an editorial device,” he said.

According to Haaga, the board has elements of being a “supreme court,” a regulatory organization, and a human rights tribunal. It has so far received more than 400,000 appeals to consider, with the main criteria for consideration that they demonstrate an issue that Facebook is wrestling with so that their outcomes may determine consistency, clarity, and transparency. “The board selects cases that can have an impact on community standards,” he said. For Arriaga – who described the rationale of decisions taken by board members as “beautifully articulated” – the initiative is an evolving work in progress, which is open to approaching new challenges as they emerge.

Tuning in from South Africa, Salzburg Global Fellow Tali Nates – founder and director of the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre – posed a question about moderating posts flagged as “hate speech.” Meanwhile, Mariana Olaizola Rosenblat, a lecturer in law at the University of Chicago, and Salzburg Global Fellow, questioned whether Facebook should see itself as subject to international human rights law.

To close, Salyer asked Arriaga and Haaga to consider who the Facebook Oversight Board would like to engage with further in the future. Salzburg Global Fellow and media literacy expert Damaso Reyes also picked up on this point, asking if social media users should be more involved in creating rules. As to who these people should be, Haaga suggested, “Regular people who want to have a decent experience on social media.”

In addition, Reyes suggested the conversation could continue in a new program at Salzburg Global Seminar, an idea Salyer was happy to entertain. He said, “We are a place trying to have these conversations that matter.”