Sudhir Krishnaswamy named to Facebook’s 20-member content moderation Oversight Board team

Facebook has announced its Oversight Board’s first set of members. This announcement marks a fundamental change in the way some of the most difficult and significant decisions around content on Facebook and Instagram platforms will be made.

The Oversight Board represents a new model of content moderation for Facebook and Instagram. This means that the Board will take final and binding decisions on whether specific content should be allowed or removed from Facebook and Instagram. The members have the right to review appeals from users on material that has been taken down from Facebook and Instagram.

As Mark Zuckerberg put it when he first outlined his blueprint for a new system for content governance and enforcement, “Facebook should not make so many important decisions about free expression and safety on our own. With our size comes a great deal of responsibility and while we have always taken advice from experts on how to best keep our platforms safe, until now, we have made the final decisions about what should be allowed on our platforms and what should be removed. And these decisions often are not easy to make – most judgments do not have obvious, or uncontroversial, outcomes and yet many of them have significant implications for free expression.”

And this is why Zuckerberg exhorts that his social media platforms have created and empowered a new group to exercise independent judgment over some of the most difficult and significant content decisions.

In doing so, Zuckerberg says that his team sought input from both critics and supporters of Facebook, hosting a global consultation process of workshops and roundtables with more than 650 people in 88 different countries, that resulted in: the release of a final charter, which establishes the board’s structure, scope and authority and creation Oversight Board Trust to safeguard the board’s ability to make independent decisions and recommendations.

“As the world lives through a global health crisis, social media has become a lifeline for helping people and communities to stay connected. At the same time, we know that social media can spread speech that is hateful, harmful, and deceitful. In recent years, the question of what content should stay up or come down, and who should decide this, has become increasingly urgent for society. Every content decision made by Facebook impacts people and communities. All of them deserve to understand the rules that govern what they are sharing, how these rules are applied, and how they can appeal those decisions,” expressed Zuckerberg in his company statement.

“The members announced today reflect a wide range of views and experiences. They have lived in over 27 countries, speak at least 29 languages, and are all committed to the mission of the Oversight Board. We expect them to make some decisions that we, at Facebook, will not always agree with – but that’s the point: they are truly autonomous in their exercise of independent judgment. We also expect that the board’s membership itself will face criticism. But its long-term success depends on it having members who bring different perspectives and expertise to bear,” said Zuckerberg in his statement.

Facebook had helped kick off the member selection process by choosing four co-chairs, who have since been working with it to select the additional 16 members announced on May 6^th.

This membership selection is expected to continue in the same way until the board has selected up to 40 members, at which point it alone will take responsibility for the selection of members in the future.

Sudhir Krishnaswamy is the only Indian part of the 20-member team. Krishnaswamy is the Vice-Chancellor of the National Law School of India University (NLSIU). He is also a co-founder of the Center for Law and Policy Research (CLPR) which works to advance constitutional values for everyone, including LGBTQ+ and transgender persons in India, through research, advocacy, and impact litigation.