WIRED
Facebook Inc., now rebranded as Meta created an Oversight Board less than a year ago to oversee the company’s decision-making and policy inclusion by making recommendations on significant improvements and changes that the company might require. The Oversight Board is an independent body specially created to look after and oversee the company’s content policies.
Now, less than a year since its creation, Meta is already having troubles with the independent entity, saying that it is having problems with keeping up with the group’s recommendations. Meta says that it wants the Oversight Board to improve on its recommendation process. What are the changes? Meta does not know yet but soon we could get to hear what the company thinks.
Meta says that since the Oversight Board’s creation, it has made several significant changes as a result of the board’s recommendations. Some of these changes include company policy on nude content, hate speech and other newsworthy content, as mentioned in a report by Engadget. But Meta is now suggesting that the Oversight Board should improve on its recommendation process. The current design of the recommendation process, as stated by Meta, is not the best to bring out long-term, structural changes. Both the entities are said to discuss the matter internally and potentially improve on how the Oversight Board makes recommendations to Facebook.
What is the Oversight Board? Well, it is an independent body set up by Facebook Inc. to oversee Facebook’s policies. Now, there are critics who have blasted the Oversight Board as an overboard PR stunt. I personally agree with this theory!
The company always says that it abides by what recommendations the Oversight Board is making but, in this case, it has started questioning the authority on its recommendation process, why? In a report, it was mentioned how these recommendations could have a great influence on Facebook‘s policies in the future.
Remember when Facebook announced the indefinite suspension of former US President Donald Trump? As mentioned in multiple reports, the Oversight Board also criticised Facebook’s decision on this indefinite ban on Donald Trump and told the company that it needed to properly define its policies and rules for politicians.
Nevertheless, making changes in the fundamental core of the company is not easy. It takes a considerable amount of time for the company to study those recommendations and see how they can adjust and make changes to incorporate these recommendations. Anyhow, at the end of the day, these are still recommendations that the company can decline at any time with proper reasoning.
