Challenging rules for what can be said on social media platforms
Who should decide what can be said, and what can’t be said, on social media? Facebook, now called Meta, a couple of years ago appointed an Oversight Board as a controller of the company’s moderation of what’s said on Facebook and Instagram. The board is now increasing its capacity, will take on more cases and move faster. However, all moderation of what’s said on online platforms could change if an expected upcoming review of the US so called Section 230 is changed to make online platforms more directly responsible for what’s said.
Moderation of what can be said and what cannot be said on social media is a controversial issue. The US Supreme Court is expected to hear a challenge to Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Act, which protects online platforms from liability for user-generated content.
Courts have so far interpreted Section 230 as giving a legal shield to internet companies when they decide how to display third-party content. A change is expected to have an immediate effect on how the big platforms regulate what users can say on their platforms.
Around two years ago, what is now called Meta, appointed its Oversight Board as a regulator for the companies’ platforms. In Q4 last year, 193,137 cases were submitted to the board by users, down 29% from the previous quarter last year.
In total, users submitted almost two and a half million cases to the Board from October 2020 to December 2022, the board’s transparency report shows.
It says Meta management reported implementation against 20% of the board’s recommendations, or said it already does what the board recommends, “but has not published information to demonstrate this”.
The board has now announced that changes to its Charter and Bylaws allows it to review more cases and to do so faster than before. “Moving forward, in addition to our standard decisions and policy advisory opinions, we will also be publishing expedited and summary decisions.”
The board is also getting a new member, Kenji Yoshino – a constitutional law scholar from the United States.
By the end of last year, the Board had issued 176 recommendations in total, since October 2020, and Meta has reported its progress against implementing 140 of these. Meta has implemented 24 (17%) of the Board’s recommendations fully. Eleven, (8%) have been partially implemented, and Meta has reported progress towards implementing 53 (38%).
“The company has reported implementation against 28 (20%) recommendations, or said it already does what the Board recommends, but has not published information to demonstrate this.”
94% of cases submitted to the board in Q4 last year were appeals to restore content that the company had taken down, while 6% of cases were appeals to remove other users’ content.
Around half (47%) of submitted cases in Q4 last year came from the United States and Canada, followed by 22% from Europe, 13% from Latin America and the Caribbean, and 12% from Asia Pacific and Oceania.
In Q4 2022 users submitted the most appeals to remove posts they thought violated Meta’s Hate Speech Community Standard (27%), followed by Bullying and Harassment (24%), and Adult Nudity and Sexual Activity (13%). In Q1 2022, the number of appeals to remove content for allegedly violating the Adult Nudity and Sexual Activity policy was 7%.
The vast majority of cases submitted by users (90%) concerned content shared on Facebook, with only 10% of cases concerning content shared on Instagram.
In this period, the Oversight Board issued five decisions. It upheld Meta’s original decision in two cases and overturned the company’s original decision in three. In Q4, the Board also published a policy advisory opinion on Meta’s cross-check program. This analysed cross-check in light of Meta’s human rights commitments and stated values, and raised questions around how Meta treats its most powerful users letting them express opinions that less famous users would not be allowed to publish.
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