Facebook’s Supervisory Board is expected to begin operations in the coming months. (File)
New Delhi:
Facebook’s supervisory board said it would be within its scope to examine how the social media giant treats posts by public figures who may violate community standards and are the type of “very difficult cases” that the board expects to review once it starts working.
Oversight Board is an independent body set up by Facebook to moderate content in a transparent manner. In May of this year, Facebook announced the names of 20 board members, including the vice-chancellor of the National Law School of India University, Sudhir Krishnaswamy.
The council is expected to start its activities in the coming months.
A spokesperson for the supervisory board said the board, made up of independent experts from around the world, has the power to make binding and independent decisions on many of the most difficult content issues on Facebook and Instagram.
“… we are committed to protecting users and holding Facebook accountable. How Facebook treats posts by public figures who may violate community standards is within the purview of the Council and is the type of very difficult case that the Council has. expects to review when we start operating, ”the spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
Further, the spokesperson said hate speech is included in this, and “we will not fear hard cases and hold Facebook accountable.”
The board is working hard to become operational and expects to start hearing business in the coming months, the spokesperson added. The board was formed after Facebook got bogged down in various controversies, including the one over Cambridge Analytica.
A recent Wall Street Journal report alleged that Facebook’s content policies favor the ruling party in India. Since then, the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress have exchanged criticism over the social media giant’s alleged biases.
Facebook – which counts India among its largest markets with 300 million users – has claimed that it is an open, transparent and non-partisan platform and that it will continue to remove content posted by public figures in India “when it violates” its Community Standards.
Facebook employees also questioned the social media platform’s handling of hate speech and political content and questioned whether the policies had been circumvented by company executives in India.
Multiple sources said employees had raised questions about the issue on various groups on Facebook’s internal network – which looks like Facebook’s consumer social media product.
These include discussions around the WSJ article, questions about the company’s position on the matter and whether the rules have indeed been bent in this case, they said.
At the company’s town hall on Wednesday, most of the questions revolved around this subject. Most of the questions were from people wanting to know Facebook’s position on how political content is handled in India and whether the policies set out around content regulation are being followed, the sources said.
