Meta’s “independent” Oversight Board is reportedly in turmoil over the company’s new free speech overhaul.
Financial Times reported on Feb. 21 that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement that his platforms would have a revamped fact-checking system and less biased censorship policies have sent shockwaves through the Oversight Board. The board’s members were not consulted on the changes, the outlet noted, indicating that Zuckerberg is serious about making major changes on Facebook, Instagram and his other platforms. Some board members are even rumored to be demanding new ways of enforcing censorship in the wake of the announcement, creating an internal war between would-be censors and the more pro-free speech advocates.
The board members were only briefly notified of the impending fact-checking changes and not notified about the hate speech reforms, according to Financial Times. “While the board’s co-chairs put out a statement saying it ‘welcomed’ the news that Meta was reviewing its fact-checking programme, this did not reflect the views of many board members, they said, and in particular did not apply to their thinking on the hate speech policy shift,” the Times cited the complainants.
Now some board members are demanding that they still have the power to pressure Meta into censoring speech with which they disagree, the Times explained. Members have considered writing a white paper or pushing a newer system whereby the board requests information and then offers non-binding advice to Meta on enforcement action. This seems similar to the current system, whereby the board rules on announced censorship decisions from the Meta platforms.
While the Oversight Board made a couple of better decisions late last year when it critiqued Facebook for censoring a Kamala Harris meme and supported the platform's refusal to censor a former French presidential candidate, the board has long displayed bias and an obsession with censorship. For instance, Meta’s Oversight Board defended Meta’s decision to ban then-President Donald Trump from its platforms in 2021 over false accusations of a risk of violence. The Board was also critical of Trump’s reinstatement in 2023.
Most of the board’s members are not originally from the United States, meaning they are not accustomed to American norms and freedoms like the fundamental right to free speech. In fact, board member Kenji Yoshino, a New York University constitutional law professor, admitted in May 2024, “Our baseline here is not the U.S. Constitution and free speech, but rather international human rights norms.”
Similarly, Financial Times noted in its piece that the board members asserted Meta’s free speech changes could potentially harm human rights, but without explaining how. Undermining its supposed dedication to human rights, the Oversight Board in 2024 cracked down on “misgendering” but green-lighted the radical Islamic terrorist phrase “from the river to the sea.”
Conservatives are under attack. Contact Facebook headquarters at (650) 308-7300 and encourage Meta to continue to push for pro-free speech measures here and abroad, including by demanding that the Meta platforms and the Meta Oversight Board be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on “misinformation” and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
