Facebook released a set of recommended bylaws along with an announcement of the oversight board on the 28th of January, as they had given new details about how it will be structured.
The board’s selection process will be focused on the representation of a diverse backgrounds and viewpoints found on both Instagram and Facebook, according to Facebook governance director Brent Harris.
“Almost any person on the planet may not like one or two people who are on the board, and we think that’s a feature,” Harris said on a call with reporters, according to The Verge.
“When we announce, you’re going to see that this isn’t just a board that looks like Silicon Valley or looks like Facebook.”
The company has narrowed down the members to a “few dozen” candidates but Facebook has not made any formal offers yet, Harris said.
Once the board is in place, it will be able to make changes to the draft bylaws that Facebook has proposed.
Facebook had announced the oversight board first in 2018 and ever since then it’s been developing. The oversight board is means to be an independent body to handle Facebook’s most difficult moderation decisions as well as exist as its own corporate entity which will be funded by $130 million as a donation from Facebook.
Facebook’s oversight board’s charter was released in September and the bylaws proposed recently has given a new detailed look at how the board will be interacting with Facebook and its platform, according to The Verge.
The board will be determining its own pace for its meeting while Facebook has laid out a specific timeline for handling claims. For once a claim is submitted for appeal – either by a user or Facebook – the company expects action to be taken within 90 days, including a publication of the board’s decision and a policy recommendation from Facebook. The offer to appeal is offered to all users as an extension of Facebook’s moderation appeal process.
The board will ensure local representation with dealing with ethnic conflicts, as the bylaws state that each case will be decided by a panel consisting of four randomly selected board members and one from the region that’s primarily affected.
“The oversight board has been created to ensure that the rights of people are respected,” said Thomas Hughes, former chief of the digital rights group Article 19, will serve as director of board administration, “and that there is accountability and transparency in the application of the community standards.”
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