What we know about Facebook’s ‘Supreme Court’

Facebook’s “Supreme Court” is starting to take shape. 

More than six months after Mark Zuckerberg revealed his plan to create an “independent body” to review controversial content decisions, Facebook says it has made fresh progress on the effort. 

The company has spent the last several months hosting discussions and reviewing public feedback on its plans. On Thursday, the company published a 44-page paper that delves into those discussions and how it’s thinking about the crucial decisions it faces. 

It’s a long and complex process, but it’s one that could dramatically impact some of Facebook’s most consequential decisions. Here’s what we know about it so far.

A ‘Supreme Court’ for social media

Though Facebook’s never quite described it in these terms, the company’s plan for an independent board to oversee content decisions is frequently described as a kind of “Supreme Court.” 

The board will be a 40-person group that exists outside of Facebook’s traditional policy and content  moderation apparatus. This group will be tasked with weighing in on only the most high-profile cases that deal with particularly thorny issues.

The group will be “diverse”

While we still don’t know who will sit on this board, Facebook says diversity is key, noting that “members should be experts who come from different backgrounds, different disciplines, and different viewpoints, but who can all represent the interests of a global community.” It sounds like that could also mean including people who have been critical of the social media company in the past.

“Feedback was nearly unanimous in stressing the importance of having some Facebook critics on the Board,” the paper notes.

It will decide on ‘important and disputed’ cases…

While many of the specifics are still being worked out, the most recent paper outlines two ways that a particular content decision may wind up in front of the oversight board. If an issue is “important and disputed,” then Facebook may directly request a review from the board. Users who have already gone through Facebook’s appeals process will also be able to request an additional review from the board, though these requests will be “filtered and prioritized.”

…but its power is limited

Ultimately, the board’s job will be to make decisions on specific pieces of content. Though those decisions could ultimately impact the direction of Facebook’s own policies, the board won’t be able to influence other sometimes-controversial Facebook policies. Facebook makes clear that policies governing fake news, advertising, AI, or News Feed ranking will not be under the purview of the oversight board.

There’s still a lot we don’t know

While Facebook’s plans are starting to take shape, there are still a ton of details and decisions that need to be ironed out. As Thursday’s report makes clear, there are still many, many key points of disagreement. Among them:

• Should board members be required to be Facebook users (or, at least, familiar with social media)?

• Just how closely should an independent board work with Facebook employees?

• Should board members work in a part of full-time capacity, and how long should they be able to serve in the role?

The good news is we should have much more information soon. Facebook says it plans in to release a final version of its charter, which will act as the board’s official rulebook, in August.