Facebook’s “Mutual Check” system has come under fire. Photo: Richard Drew/AP/dpa
Menlo Park (dpa) – Facebook owns its platform, which, according to media reports, has scrapped the content rules of several celebrities, which have been scrutinized by an independent oversight body. This announcement comes after the commission’s investigation into the matter.
The body is a kind of “supreme court” of Facebook, and its founder and president, Mark Zuckerberg, cannot override its decisions. It is composed of legal experts, activists, and former politicians.
The controversial “Cross-Check” system has now been introduced, according to Facebook, to avoid errors when removing content. In some cases, such decisions are subject to a second review – eg, to take into account additional context or other factors such as publication merit.
However, the Wall Street Journal recently wrote, citing internal documents of the Internet, that this has led to the fact that many high-profile users have been effectively excluded from the application of the content rules by “cross-verification”. By doing so, they could have allowed themselves to make mistakes that might have consequences for ordinary members.
Facebook is now asking the supervisory body to examine, among other things, the criteria under which content decisions are chosen to be double checked. The same committee is already looking into the question of whether Facebook has been adequately informed about the system by Facebook in the past.
According to the newspaper report, there are at least 5.8 million Facebook users in the “mutual verification” program. Upon request, Facebook notified the oversight board that it was only used for a small number of decisions.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210928-99-400581 / 4
