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129 Yale L. J. 2418 (2019-2020)
The Facebook Oversight Board: Creating an Independent Institution to Adjudicate Online Free Expression

handle is hein.journals/ylr129 and id is 2474 raw text is: KATE KIONICK The Facebook Oversight Board: Creating an Independent Institution to Adjudicate Online Free Expression A B5ST RAC T. For a decade and a half, Facebook has dominated the landscape of digital social networks, becoming one of the most power ful arbiters of online speech. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, over two bilion users leverage the platform to post, share, discuss, react to, and access content from all over the globe. Through a system of semipublic nles called Community Standards, Facebook has creared a body of- laws and a system of governance that dictate what users may say on the platform. in recent years, as rhis intricately built system to dispatch the com- pany's immense private power over the pu blic rigbt of speech has become more visible, Facebook has experienced intense pressure to become more accountable. transparent, and democratic, not only in how it creates its fundamental policies for speech hut also in how it enforces them. In November 2018, ater years of entreaty from the press, advocacy groups, and users, CO and founder Mark Zuckerherg amnounced that Facebook would construct an independent over- sight body to be researched, created, and launched within the year. The express purpose of this body was to serve as an appellate reew system for user content and to make content-moderaton policy recommendations to Facebook. This Feature empirically documents the creation of this in- stitution. now called the Facehook Oversight Board. The Board is a historic endeavor both in scope and scale. The Feature t aces the events and intuences that led to Facebook's decision to create the Over- sight Board. It details the year-long process of creating the Board, relying on hundreds of hours of interviexvs and embedded research with the Governance Team charged with researching, planning, and building this new institution. The creation of the Oversight Board and its aims are a novel articulation of internet govern- ance. This Feature iliuminates the fumure implications of- the new institution for global freedom of expression. Using rihe lens of adjudication, ir analyzes what the Board is, what the Board means to users, and what the Board means for indusry and governments. Ultimately, the Feature concudes that the Facebook Oversight Board has great poreitial to set new precedent for user participation in private platforms' governance and a user right to procedure in content moderation. 2418

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