Meta’s Oversight Board was recently told to reevaluate the changes made by the tech giant before Donald Trump’s inauguration as President of the USA.
The board called out both Facebook and Instagram for making some abrupt changes without taking into consideration what impact they might have on users. The policy overhaul arose at the start of the year, out of which the most shocking part was eliminating fact-checkers and replacing them with Community Notes.
This would give rise to more freedom of expression and include topics that were once considered sensitive to share through the app. Common examples included the likes of immigration and gender.
The board is funded by Meta, but it operates independently. The oversight board feels the consequences of the changes are too adverse, and something needs to be done before it is too late.
It outlined concerns about Meta’s changes and the lack of transparency on this front. This is a direct collision from the train of thought of Mark Zuckerberg, who is working alongside the Trump administration to mend broken bonds.
He wished to roll back the oldest working terms and conditions to give rise to a new form of independence on the app that had not been seen before. This includes fighting off harms linked to hate speech, violence, and misinformation.
The news comes as the board tried to roll out an initial ruling on separate content cases after the changes came into play in January. A lot of the things that were upheld included posts of a sensitive nature, like talking about trans people getting bathroom access and requests to get rid of posts featuring racial slurs.
Meta says it welcomed the decision of the board to restore posts promoting freedom of expression on the platforms. However, it didn’t address other kinds of rulings that called for material to be removed.
The matters discussed carry high stakes, and Meta knows this. The board holds the company accountable to the massive user base it has, and they hope their recommendations will be taken into consideration.
Some of the shakeup decisions that really caused an uproar were reduced discussions on sensitive topics, getting rid of the fact-checking initiative, and even bowing down to criticism given by conservative individuals about how content moderation was going one step too far.
Image: DIW-Aigen
Read next: Tariffs Threaten PC Demand but Apple’s Momentum Shows No Signs of Slowing
The board called out both Facebook and Instagram for making some abrupt changes without taking into consideration what impact they might have on users. The policy overhaul arose at the start of the year, out of which the most shocking part was eliminating fact-checkers and replacing them with Community Notes.
This would give rise to more freedom of expression and include topics that were once considered sensitive to share through the app. Common examples included the likes of immigration and gender.
The board is funded by Meta, but it operates independently. The oversight board feels the consequences of the changes are too adverse, and something needs to be done before it is too late.
It outlined concerns about Meta’s changes and the lack of transparency on this front. This is a direct collision from the train of thought of Mark Zuckerberg, who is working alongside the Trump administration to mend broken bonds.
He wished to roll back the oldest working terms and conditions to give rise to a new form of independence on the app that had not been seen before. This includes fighting off harms linked to hate speech, violence, and misinformation.
The news comes as the board tried to roll out an initial ruling on separate content cases after the changes came into play in January. A lot of the things that were upheld included posts of a sensitive nature, like talking about trans people getting bathroom access and requests to get rid of posts featuring racial slurs.
Meta says it welcomed the decision of the board to restore posts promoting freedom of expression on the platforms. However, it didn’t address other kinds of rulings that called for material to be removed.
The matters discussed carry high stakes, and Meta knows this. The board holds the company accountable to the massive user base it has, and they hope their recommendations will be taken into consideration.
Some of the shakeup decisions that really caused an uproar were reduced discussions on sensitive topics, getting rid of the fact-checking initiative, and even bowing down to criticism given by conservative individuals about how content moderation was going one step too far.
Image: DIW-Aigen
Read next: Tariffs Threaten PC Demand but Apple’s Momentum Shows No Signs of Slowing
