Facebook’s Oversight Board decision highlights need for independent scrutiny of Facebook’s decisions

Responding to Facebook’s Oversight Board uphelding Facebook’s decision made on January 7 to suspend then-President Trump from Facebook and Instagram, Jim Killock, Executive Director of Open Rights Group said:

“The oversight board have made some good recommendations, which emphasizes the need for independent scrutiny of Facebook’s decisions. However, this oversight remains very limited. In particular, they cannot normally review account suspensions, and they cannot investigate the quality of the very many decisions made by Facebook. They are limited to inspecting a handful of controversial, usually high profile decisions.

“Facebook’s power to decide on the shape of speech online is very broad, and needs to be addressed as an issue of dominance. We need social media plurality, and competition policy that delivers that.” 

ENDS

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