Trump was suspended from Facebook and Instagram after posting a video during the deadly storming of the Capitol by fired-up supporters challenging his election loss, in which he told them: "We love you, you're very special." The Trump-Facebook case had been intensely followed for its repercussions for social networks seeking to curb misinformation and abusive content while remaining open to political discourse. Owono told AFP that an indefinite ban "wouldn't have been compliant with not only the standards of the company, but also with international human rights principles and standards." in favor of protecting freedom of expression and human rights in general." Julie Owono, an oversight board member and African digital rights activist, said the ruling was based on a consensus "grounded in principles. "It is not permissible for Facebook to keep a user off the platform for an undefined period, with no criteria for when or whether the account will be restored," the board said, inviting Facebook to "either impose a time-limited suspension or account deletion." "Within six months of this decision, Facebook must reexamine the arbitrary penalty it imposed on January 7 and decide the appropriate penalty," it said in a written opinion. Though the Board’s ruling admonishes Facebook, it ultimately leaves the final enforcement decision squarely in the hands of Facebook, which is exactly where the matter stood prior to the Board’s involvement.But while endorsing the initial ban, the panel also determined that "it was not appropriate for Facebook to impose the indeterminate and standardless penalty of indefinite suspension." For that reason, however, the Oversight Board’s recent indecision on the Trump case risks deflating its sense of legitimacy in the public eye. Further, respondents tended to favor oversight boards above both social media companies and governments for making decisions about what can appear on social platforms. A 2020 survey conducted by Gallup and the Knight Foundation found that more than 8 out of 10 US adults said they favored content oversight boards. However, Hughes drew some distance from that claim and said the Board’s immediate focus was on Facebook and Instagram, affirming that “there is no objective for the board to become a sort of ‘über-board’ covering all platforms online.''īy punting its most consequential decision back to Facebook, the Oversight Board risks losing its air of legitimacy. Earlier this year, Oversight Board co-chair Helle Thorning-Schmidt suggested platforms and tech companies outside of the Facebook ecosystem may one day partner with the Oversight Board to adjudicate content decisions for their own platforms. The Oversight Board is attempting to make the case for " private governance." Often referred to as Facebook’s Supreme Court, the board is trying to strike a middle ground between self-regulation and direct government intervention. Facebook will likely have to adjust its own policies to act as the final word on speech within its platform, a duty it was hoping to offload onto the Oversight Board. In the end, the Board’s choice to leave the long-term fate of Trump’s account up to Facebook will likely leave both critics and Facebook itself unsatisfied. In an interview with Protocol, Oversight Board director Thomas Hughes said Facebook's indefinite suspension was not consistent with international principles of human rights and free expression and claimed that "vague and arbitrary rule" could have a chilling effect on speech. For context, the Oversight Board is billed as an independent panel of lawyers, academics, human rights activists, and former political leaders picked and funded by Facebook to adjudicate the company’s content moderation decisions.įacebook has six months to review the suspension and make a final decision on Trump’s status on the platform. The Board maintains Facebook "did not follow a clear, published procedure," and accused it of seeking to avoid responsibility. Facebook’s Oversight Board announced on Wednesday it would uphold Facebook’s decision to restrict former President Donald Trump from posting on Facebook or Instagram immediately following the Capitol Hill riots, but went on to claim Facebook had violated its own rules by suspending Trump’s account indefinitely.
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