Some of the people who literally helped write Facebook’s community standards say Zuckerberg is wrong on Trump posts
Thirty-three of Facebook’s earliest employees write letter objecting to hands-off policy
Facebook Inc. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg faces mounting pressure from employees over the company’s hands-off policy toward the Facebook posts of President Trump.
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Facebook Inc. Chief
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“We grew up at Facebook, but it is no longer ours,” the 33 former employees, who joined Facebook FB, +1.98% in its early stages and some of whom helped author its original Community Standards, said in the letter.
“Today, Facebook’s leadership interprets freedom of expression to mean that they should do nothing — or very nearly nothing — to interfere in political discourse,” they said, adding, of the current leaders of the company: “They have decided that elected officials should be held to a lower standard than those they govern. One set of rules for you, and another for any politician, from your local mayor to the president of the United States.”
See also: Facebook workers revolt against Zuckerberg as Trump posts continue to go unchallenged
Zuckerberg defended his lack of action because, he said, Facebook should not become the “arbiter of truth.” That prompted dozens of Facebook employees to stage a virtual walkout from work on Monday, leading to a contentious town-hall meeting on Tuesday in which the Facebook chief executive doubled down on his decision.
The latest pressure point came Wednesday afternoon, with the letter from former employees.
“To Mark: We know that you think deeply about these issues, but we also know that Facebook must work to regain the public’s trust,” the letter concludes. “Facebook isn’t neutral, and it never has been. Making the world more open and connected, strengthening communities, giving everyone a voice — these are not neutral ideas.”
Facebook ( Suckface ) names 20 people to its 'Supreme Court' for content moderation
The list includes nine law professors, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate from Yemen and journalists but no disinformation experts.
By David Ingram
Facebook
on Wednesday appointed 20 people from around the world to serve on what
will effectively be the social media network’s “Supreme Court” for
speech, issuing rulings on what kind of posts will be allowed and what
should be taken down.
The list includes
nine law professors, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate from Yemen,
journalists, free speech advocates and a writer from the libertarian
Cato Institute.
Absent, however, was any prominent expert in studying disinformation. Facebook has struggled to contain state-based manipulation efforts as well as hoaxes on subjects like false cures and gun
Helle
Thorning-Schmidt, a former prime minister of Denmark and one of four
co-chairs of the board, said they would consider such expertise in
recruiting more members.
“We have tried to
consider all communities and also people who have been critical of
Facebook in the past,” she said. The number of members will rise to 40
over time, she said.
The oversight board is more than two years in the making, its creation prompted by CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who said in 2018
that he wanted to create “some sort of structure, almost like a Supreme
Court,” for users to get a final judgment call on what is acceptable
speech and relieve the company's executives of having to decide.
Social
media networks dating back to MySpace have struggled to write rulebooks
that are easy to understand and consistently enforceable and yet cover
the varied material that people try to post online.
The
rules, including Facebook’s “community standards,” have evolved to
prohibit not only illegal images such as child pornography but also hate
speech, harassment and, most recently, false information about the
coronavirus pandemic.
The questions often
become political footballs, as lawmakers in Washington and elsewhere
have turned their fire on Zuckerberg when they believe they or their
supporters are being unfairly censored.
The
creation of Facebook’s oversight board is designed to effectively hand
the last word over to the expert panel, possibly taking Zuckerberg and
other Facebook executives out of the picture on writing speech rules —
and sparing them having to answer questions from users, lawmakers and
journalists.
But one of the co-chairs, former federal judge Michael McConnell, said he expected the board to have a steep learning curve.
“We
are not the internet police,” McConnell said. “Don’t think of us as
sort of a fast-action group that’s going to swoop in and deal with
rapidly moving problems. That’s not our job.” The job, he added, was to
hear appeals of decisions that Facebook has already made.
The
board’s decisions will be binding “unless implementation could violate
the law,” Facebook said. The decisions will also apply to Facebook-owned
Instagram but not initially to WhatsApp, where content is generally
encrypted. Membership on the board is part-time. The board isn’t
disclosing its compensation.
Facebook has
taken steps to try to make the board independent, creating a $130
million trust to pay for its operation and pledging that it cannot
remove members from the board. Facebook will refer cases to the board
for its consideration when the company considers them “significant and difficult,” and Facebook users will be able to suggest cases through an online portal.
“All
Members are committed to free expression, and reflect a wide range of
perspectives on how to understand the principle and its limits,”
Facebook said in a statement.
“Some have
expressed concerns with the dangers of imposing restrictions on speech,
and allow for only very narrow exceptions. Others make comparatively
greater accommodations to a range of competing values, including safety
and privacy,” the company said.
Day-to-day
enforcement of the rules will still be up to Facebook, which uses a
combination of computer algorithms and human moderators to decide which
posts violate its rules.
One reason that
moderating content online is so complicated is because companies such as
Facebook tailor their rules to specific countries based on local law.
Facebook, with 2.6 billion people across its apps, has users in nearly
every country.
Americans are the
best-represented nationality on the oversight board, with at least five
members. No other country has more than one. Facebook said the members
chosen collectively have lived in more than 27 countries and speak at
least 29 languages.
Not all are avid
Facebook users. “I myself am not really an Instagram or Facebook user,”
said Jamal Greene, a Columbia Law School professor. But he said he
appreciated that “Facebook’s decisions affect people all over the world
and can affect people in profound ways.”
Of the 20 members so far, half are male and half female.
Two
of the lawyers joining the board have been discussed as potential U.S.
Supreme Court nominees: Pamela Karlan, a Stanford law professor who’s a favorite of liberals, and McConnell, also a Stanford professor and a conservative former judge appointed by President George W. Bush.
McConnell told reporters on a conference call that he viewed the court as ensuring Facebook is a neutral platform — a contentious idea
as hoaxes and other information have spread on the network. “One of the
fruits of this if we do our jobs right is that this will bring about a
degree of political and cultural neutrality,” he said.
“It is our ambition and goal that Facebook not decide elections,” he said.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate is Tawakkol Karman, who won the award in 2011 for her role in organizing protests against the Yemeni government as part of the pro-democracy Arab spring.
Among the other members are Alan Rusbridger, a former editor of Britain’s Guardian newspaper who oversaw
the newspaper’s coverage of U.S. spying based on leaked documents from
Edward Snowden, and John Samples, a Cato Institute vice president who
has argued against government censorship of social media.
Below is Facebook's list of the 20 members of the Facebook Oversight Board:
- Afia Asantewaa Asare-Kyei - A human rights advocate who works on women’s rights, media freedom and access to information issues across Africa at the Open Society Initiative for West Afric
- Evelyn Aswad - A University of Oklahoma College of Law professor who formerly served as a senior State Department lawyer and specializes in the application of international human rights standards to content moderation issues
- Endy Bayuni - A journalist who twice served as the editor-in-chief of The Jakarta Post, and helps direct a journalists’ association that promotes excellence in the coverage of religion and spirituality.
- Catalina Botero Marino, co-chair - A former U.N. special rapporteur for freedom of expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States who now serves as dean of the Universidad de los Andes Faculty of Law.
- Katherine Chen - A communications scholar at the National Chengchi University who studies social media, mobile news and privacy, and a former national communications regulator in Taiwan.
- Nighat Dad - A digital rights advocate who offers digital security training to women in Pakistan and across South Asia to help them protect themselves against online harassment, campaigns against government restrictions on dissent, and received the Human Rights Tulip Award.
- Jamal Greene, co-chair - A Columbia Law professor who focuses on constitutional rights adjudication and the structure of legal and constitutional argument.
- Pamela Karlan - A Stanford Law professor and Supreme Court advocate who has represented clients in voting rights, LGBTQ+ rights, and First Amendment cases, and serves as a member of the board of the American Constitution Society.
- Tawakkol Karman - A Nobel Peace Prize laureate who used her voice to promote nonviolent change in Yemen during the Arab Spring, and was named as one of “History's Most Rebellious Women” by Time magazine.
- Maina Kiai - A director of Human Rights Watch’s Global Alliances and Partnerships Program and a former U.N. special rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association who has decades of experience advocating for human rights in Kenya.
- Sudhir Krishnaswamy - A vice chancellor of the National Law School of India University who co-founded an advocacy organization that works to advance constitutional values for everyone, including LGBTQ+ and transgender persons, in India.
- Ronaldo Lemos - A technology, intellectual property and media lawyer who co-created a national internet rights law in Brazil, co-founded a nonprofit focused on technology and policy issues, and teaches law at the Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro.
- Michael McConnell, co-chair - A former U.S. federal circuit judge who is now a constitutional law professor at Stanford, an expert on religious freedom, and a Supreme Court advocate who has represented clients in a wide range of First Amendment cases involving freedom of speech, religion and association.
- Julie Owono - A digital rights and anti-censorship advocate who leads Internet Sans Frontières and campaigns against internet censorship in Africa and around the world.
- Emi Palmor - A former director general of the Israeli Ministry of Justice who led initiatives to address racial discrimination, advance access to justice via digital services and platforms and promote diversity in the public sector.
- Alan Rusbridger - A former editor-in-chief of The Guardian who transformed the newspaper into a global institution and oversaw its Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the Edward Snowden disclosures.
- András Sajó - A former judge and vice president of the European Court of Human Rights who is an expert in free speech and comparative constitutionalism.
- John Samples - A public intellectual who writes extensively on social media and speech regulation, advocates against restrictions on online expression, and helps lead a libertarian think tank.
- Nicolas Suzor - A Queensland University of Technology Law School professor who focuses on the governance of social networks and the regulation of automated systems, and has published a book on internet governance.
Harvard University Political Economics Professor David Cutler
Says Zuckerberg Facebook Is Screwing Up
Over 140 scientists who have received funding from the philanthropic group, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, sent Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg a letter on Saturday calling the social networking company out for its recent stance on President Donald Trump’s inflammatory posts on police brutality protesters.
“As scientists, we are dedicated to investigating ways to better our world,” reads the letter obtained by The Washington Post. “The spread of deliberate misinformation and divisive language is directly antithetical to this goal and we are therefore deeply concerned at the stance Facebook has taken.” The letter specifically calls out Trump’s social media post which said “when the looting starts, the shooting starts,” defining it as a “clear statement of inciting violence.”
Facebook and
Zuckerberg himself have been criticized in recent days for defending the
company’s decision to keep the post on its website. The inaction on the
social networking site’s part was in direct conflict with the response
of other platforms, such as Twitter which hid the tweet behind a warning
label.
“We urge you to consider stricter policies on misinformation and incendiary language that harms people or groups of people, especially in our current climate that is grappling with racial injustice,” the letter concluded. Also among its signatories were scientists funded by the Zuckerberg Biohub, which has recently been working on expanding testing for the coronavirus.
Employees at Facebook have spoken out against the company’s decision to leave up Trump’s tweet. Some even staged a digital walk out. At least two Facebook engineers resigned from the company outright. One software developer shared an email turning down a Facebook recruiter’s offer for a job opportunity with the company.
“The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is a philanthropic organization started by Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg that is separate from Facebook,” said a spokesperson for the group in a statement provided to the Post. “We have a separate staff, separate offices, and a separate mission: to build a more inclusive, just, and healthy future for everyone through our work in science, education, and on issues related to justice and opportunity. We are grateful for our staff, partners and grantees in this work and we respect their right to voice their opinions, including on Facebook policies.”
Zuckerberg originally doubled down and tried to defend the company position. As of Friday, however, it appears he’s flipped, saying the company will now review its policies, particularly those concerning state violence.
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative was originally founded in 2015 by the Facebook CEO and his wife, Priscilla. The organization has pledged $3 billion in order to “eradicate all disease.”
In the letter, the scientists also highlighted another important mission defined by the organization, one that runs in contrast to what Facebook’s policies facilitate on its platform. That mission is to use technology “to help solve some of our toughest challenges — from preventing and eradicating disease, to improving learning experiences for kids, to reforming the criminal justice system” and "to build a more inclusive, just, and healthy future for everyone.”
These scientists sure do have a good point.
“We urge you to consider stricter policies on misinformation and incendiary language that harms people or groups of people, especially in our current climate that is grappling with racial injustice,” the letter concluded. Also among its signatories were scientists funded by the Zuckerberg Biohub, which has recently been working on expanding testing for the coronavirus.
Employees at Facebook have spoken out against the company’s decision to leave up Trump’s tweet. Some even staged a digital walk out. At least two Facebook engineers resigned from the company outright. One software developer shared an email turning down a Facebook recruiter’s offer for a job opportunity with the company.
“The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is a philanthropic organization started by Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg that is separate from Facebook,” said a spokesperson for the group in a statement provided to the Post. “We have a separate staff, separate offices, and a separate mission: to build a more inclusive, just, and healthy future for everyone through our work in science, education, and on issues related to justice and opportunity. We are grateful for our staff, partners and grantees in this work and we respect their right to voice their opinions, including on Facebook policies.”
Zuckerberg originally doubled down and tried to defend the company position. As of Friday, however, it appears he’s flipped, saying the company will now review its policies, particularly those concerning state violence.
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative was originally founded in 2015 by the Facebook CEO and his wife, Priscilla. The organization has pledged $3 billion in order to “eradicate all disease.”
In the letter, the scientists also highlighted another important mission defined by the organization, one that runs in contrast to what Facebook’s policies facilitate on its platform. That mission is to use technology “to help solve some of our toughest challenges — from preventing and eradicating disease, to improving learning experiences for kids, to reforming the criminal justice system” and "to build a more inclusive, just, and healthy future for everyone.”
These scientists sure do have a good point.
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