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March 29, 2024

Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, was sharply criticized on Tuesday by a company-appointed oversight board for its policies that give special treatment to celebrities, politicians and business partners, but not the vast majority of users.

Under a program called Crosscheck, people with large followings are able to post and share content on Facebook and Instagram that would otherwise be swiftly removed for violating company policy, according to the oversight board. Tough policy issues related to free expression, human rights, and content moderation.

“The board is concerned about how Meta is prioritizing commercial interests in content moderation,” the board said in a report. It said the cross-check procedure “provided additional protections for certain users’ expressions.”

The oversight board recommended that Meta overhaul its cross-checking system by “radically” increasing transparency about who is on the program’s VIP list and hiding their posts when censored. It added that Meta should prioritize speech of “special public importance”. The recommendations of the committee of about 20 academics, human rights experts and lawyers are non-binding.

The report is a reminder of the power that social networks have in deciding which posts to keep, which to delete, and what to do with specific accounts. Twitter, Facebook, TikTok and others have long come under scrutiny for making unilateral rulings on content on their platforms that could influence political debate and social issues.

Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk, is now in the spotlight for how his social media service will manage content. Twitter has policies in place to keep misinformation and hate speech off the platform, but Mr. Musk has said he believes in unfettered speech and has backed away from enforcing some of those policies.

Meta has de-emphasized its social networking business in recent months following criticism of toxic content on those platforms. Company CEO Mark Zuckerberg has instead prioritized access to the immersive digital world of the Metaverse. Meta has spent billions on this shift, but it’s unclear whether consumers will embrace metaverse-related products. The company recently laid off more than 11,000 employees, about 13% of its workforce.

“Meta’s oversight committee is calling for a major overhaul of content moderation rules that would create a more level, level playing field and hold VIP users to the same rigorous standards as regular users,” said Brian Uzzi, a professor at the Kellogg School of Management. at Northwestern University. “To avoid chaos, there should be one rule governing them all.”

Nick Clegg, Vice President of Global Affairs at Meta, Say On Tuesday, Meta created a cross-check system to prevent erroneously deleted posts from having outsized repercussions. He said the company would respond to the supervisory committee’s report within 90 days.

The oversight board began investigating the cross-check program last year after the Wall Street Journal and whistleblower Frances Haugen reported its existence. The board last year sharply criticized the company for not being transparent about the plan.

On Tuesday, the oversight board found that the cross-check process ensured high-profile users received additional scrutiny by human moderators before they were removed for violating the company’s terms of service. The board criticized the company for its lack of transparency and “unequal treatment” of Facebook and Instagram’s most influential and powerful users at the expense of its human rights and company values. It took up to seven months for Meta to make a final decision on a piece of content posted by an account in the cross-check process, the report said.

Mr. Zuckerberg has pushed for an oversight board so his company would not be the only entity involved in content moderation decisions. Since the board began its case in fall 2020, it has filed multiple objections to Meta’s actions on content.

In 2021, the board recommended that Meta restore postoperative breast photos that the company’s automated system had deleted for nudity. The photos, recovered by Meta, were posted by a Brazilian Instagram user promoting a breast cancer awareness campaign. The board criticized Meta for relying on automated systems to remove posts.

The board also considered Meta’s move to ban former President Donald J. Trump from Facebook and Instagram following the January 2021 riots at the U.S. Capitol. In May 2021, the board said Meta should review its decision to ban Mr Trump, adding that the company did not have a system in place to permanently suspend a former president.

Mr. Trump was involved in the cross-check program. The board accused Meta of not being “fully candid” in disclosing the cross-check, including which data was part of it.

Mr Clegg has since said Meta will decide whether to allow Mr Trump’s account to be restored by January 2023.

Oversight Board Director Thomas Hughes said Tuesday’s report was “an important step in the board’s ongoing effort to bring greater accountability, consistency and fairness to the Meta platform.”

Other social media companies have tried to copy Meta’s system of oversight boards. Last month, Mr. Musk said he planned to form a “content review committee” after taking over Twitter. Mr. Musk has not carried out the plan, accusing activists and investors of pressuring him to follow Meta’s model.

Meta also faces the prospect of being unable to display personalized ads in the EU without users’ prior consent. The decision approved by European data protection agencies this week will require the company to allow users of Facebook and Instagram to opt out of advertising based on personal data collected by Meta, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The final judgment (subject to appeal) is expected to be announced next month by Irish authorities, Meta’s main data privacy watchdog in Europe, as the company’s EU headquarters are in Dublin.



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