Facebook’s Digital Court: Oversight Board to Judge Users’ Content Appeal Cases

Facebook’s Oversight Board has begun allowing users to appeal the removal of content.

“Starting today, when someone disagrees with our decision to take down a piece of content and has exhausted our existing appeals process, they can appeal their case to the Oversight Board,” Facebook wrote Thursday, five months after the social media company welcomed a diverse group of 20 members to the board.

Emphasizing the board’s independence from company interference, the announcement included the unveiling of a case-management system for the board to use “that protects their privacy and keeps their data secure.”

“As its community grew to more than 2 billion people, it became increasingly clear to the Facebook company that it shouldn’t be making so many decisions about speech and online safety on its own,” the board’s newly launched website says. “The Oversight Board was created to help Facebook answer some of the most difficult questions around freedom of expression online: what to take down, what to leave up, and why.”

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