Shubham Sawarkar
The Meta Oversight Board has announced that it will accelerate its review of content moderation cases, including expanding the types of cases it will consider. The board was established in late 2020 to oversee Facebook and Instagram‘s content moderation decisions and has since issued 35 rulings.
In a recent blog post, the board stated that it will now release some rulings on an expedited basis. The new policy will enable the board to make decisions on some cases as quickly as 48 hours after receiving them, while others could take up to 30 days. By increasing the pace and publishing more decisions, the board aims to respond more quickly to situations with real-world consequences and address the challenges of content moderation.
Standard decisions, which involve a thorough review of Meta’s content moderation actions, will still take up to 90 days. In contrast, expedited cases will be reviewed by a panel of board members and will not consider public comments.
Additionally, the board will begin releasing summary decisions analyzing cases in which Meta has reversed its decision to take down or leave up certain posts. These cases may assist civil society and researchers in better understanding how to avoid similar content moderation errors in the future.
Finally, the board announced the addition of Kenji Yoshino, a constitutional law professor at New York University School of Law, as a new member. His expertise will be valuable in evaluating complex content moderation cases.
The Meta Oversight Board’s new policy represents a significant step forward in its ability to review and rule on content moderation cases quickly, thereby addressing the challenges of content moderation on social media platforms.
