Facebook has finalized its charter for its Oversight Board, which is being set up to adjudicate appeals about whether to leave up or take down specific content independently of Zuckerberg or the rest of the Facebook administration. Zuckerberg has confirmed in a statement that the autonomous panel would have the final say on what belongs on the platform, regardless of what anyone else has to say.
“If someone disagrees with a decision we’ve made, they can appeal to us first, and soon they will be able to further appeal to this independent board,” he said.
The charter consists of a nine-page document that sets rules for the new board of at least 11 members and up to 40. Facebook confirmed that it is ready to open nominations after consultations in 88 countries.
The new entity will focus solely on content moderation and not on other questions such as algorithmic feed ranking or artificial intelligence.
The push for this decision to introduce a formal panel of content moderators comes after pressure from the international community to carefully discard abusive and deceiving content, without taking away the right to freedom of expression on the platform. See also: Pakistani Models Make Their Debut At Milan Fashion Week