- Facebook announced that it is committing $130 million to fund an independent oversight board. These are the details about the project.
Facebook recently announced that it has committed $130 million to fund an independent oversight board. However, the members have been slightly delayed to next year. And the board will be able to make the final decisions on whether sensitive content would be displayed on the site and they can even overrule Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The $130 million budget is expected to cover operational costs for at least 6 years.
The content oversight board is one of Facebook’s most high-profile efforts for responding to the criticism into how it handles fake news, graphic content, hateful speech, etc. Facebook also released an assessment on the human rights impacts of content decisions by the board.
The board’s co-chairs and first members will likely be announced after January 2020. And Facebook’s head of governance and global affairs Brent Harris pointed out that the delays were due to unforeseen complexities of creating a trust for ensuring the board’s independence and to reduce more than 1,000 nominees to no more than about 40. In an interview with Reuters, Harris said that this is not a “move fast and break things” project.
Harris also that the recommended members came through Facebook’s global consultation process in 88 countries along with the company’s public online portal. These members range from heads of state to Nobel Prize winners and people who moderate groups on Facebook to local judges.
