Facebook releases a draft charter introducing a new content review board that would filter what goes online

Yesterday, Facebook released a draft charter that mentions the newly formed external board that will be a body of independent experts who will review Facebook's most challenging content decisions - focusing on important and disputed cases. It will share its decisions transparently and give reasons for them. This charter comes after Mark Zuckerberg wrote about his vision for how content should be governed and enforced on Facebook.

The board will also be able to decide on what content goes online or what posts should be removed. Facebook would later accept and implement the board's decisions. This group will comprise of experts with experience in content, privacy, free expression, human rights, journalism, civil rights, safety, and other relevant disciplines. The list of members will always be public.

The draft charter raises certain questions and considerations and also puts forth certain approaches giving a base model for the board’s structure, scope, and authority. “It is a starting point for discussion on how the board should be designed and formed. What the draft does not do is answer every proposed question completely or finally”, the draft states.

Nick Clegg, VP of Global Affairs and Communications, in his post mentions, “We’ve also identified key decisions that still need to be made, like the number of members, length of terms and how cases are selected.”

Facebook looks forward to attaining answers to these questions over the next six months in various workshops around the world including Singapore, Delhi, Nairobi, Berlin, New York, Mexico City, and many more cities. The workshops will bring together experts and organizations on different issues such as technology, democracy, human rights, and so on.

Nick writes, “we don’t want to limit input or feedback to a hand-picked group of experts that we work with frequently. We’re interested in hearing from a wide range of organizations, think tanks, researchers and groups who might have proposals for how we should answer these critical questions.”

Kate Klonick, Assistant Professor, St. John’s University School of Law, said, “This would be a rare and fascinating, if narrow, devolution of authority.”

Visit the draft charter, to know more about this news.