The Oversight Board of Facebook is about to make their most crucial decision till date. They will soon announce whether they are going to lift the “indefinite suspension” of Donald Trump from Instagram and Facebook.
This is going to be Oversight Board’s biggest test yet. They have to prove their capability in regulating themselves. The Trump verdict is going to affect the perception of the public about the Oversight Board for a great deal. This Oversight Board is referred to as the “Supreme Court” of Facebook and it has given a less than dozen decisions by now. Oversight Board is funded by Facebook and it is meant to take controversial and critical decisions on behalf of the social media giant.
The organization dates back to 2018, but the board has been functional for one year. Back in time a Harvard Professor who is also a friend of Facebook COO, Sheryl Sandberg has proposed a system that could act as a Supreme Court for Facebook to take critical decisions and that was the foundation of the structure now known as the Oversight Board.
Facebook claims the Oversight Board to be fully independent but has funded them with 130 million USD at their inception. And also Facebook was involved in choosing the board members. As per The New York Reporter, Mark Zuckerberg was involved in the creation of this board to a great extent.
But the board has tried their best to emphasize themselves as independent on multiple occasions. Not so long ago, the public policy manager of Rachel Wolbers stated at SXSW that the other platforms also might require their help in future looking at their functioning.
As of date, the board has been the judge for seven cases and they overturned the Facebook verdict in 5 of those. The rumours are heavy and they claim that the board will reinstate Trump’s account but they have reacted to none of those.
