For Immediate Release
June 30, 2020
Contact: press@accountabletech.org
New Report Details How Facebook Reduced Its Oversight Board To A PR Prop; Ads Call On Board Members To Speak Up Or Step Down
Amid growing outrage over Facebook’s refusal to crack down on hate and disinformation, Accountable Tech launched a multi-pronged campaign Tuesday targeting their toothless Oversight Board, which the company has long touted as the solution to precisely these problems. The landing page for the campaign includes a new report chronicling all the ways Facebook has slow-walked and handcuffed their so-called ‘Supreme Court’ to ensure it can’t address the platform’s most pressing issues until after November’s elections, if at all.
Among other things, the report shows that despite repeated claims that the independent board would launch by 2019 and begin issuing binding ruling on key content questions, it remains months away from being operational; it can only hear appeals about posts Facebook has already removed until further notice; it has no purview over the company’s powerful content-ranking algorithms; its rulings won’t set binding precedent; its broader policy stances will be treated as mere recommendations; it will be governed by Facebook-appointed trustees; and so on.
Given that context, Accountable Tech is launching targeted digital ads across LinkedIn, Facebook, and Google urging U.S.-based board members – whom Facebook is using for cover as it undermines our democracy – to speak up or step down.
“Many of these board members are people of integrity, and I trust they accepted this role with the best of intentions. But it’s clear now that they were sold a bill of goods,” said Accountable Tech Executive Director Nicole Gill. “The Oversight Board isn’t designed to fix Facebook’s toxic policies, but to lend an air of legitimacy to them. We are calling on U.S.-based board members to resign – unless they’re empowered to rule swiftly on the urgent issues at hand – rather than be complicit in Facebook’s destruction.”
READ THE REPORT – Move Slow and Fake Things: Examining Facebook’s ‘Oversight’ Board
VIEW SAMPLE ADS BELOW:
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