Meta’s Supervisory Board recommended on Tuesday (6) that the company review a system that exempts important users from its rules, saying the practice privileges the powerful and allows commercial interests to influence content decisions.
The cross-check “prioritizes users of business value to Meta and, as structured, does not meet Meta’s human rights and values responsibilities,” Supervisory Board Director Thomas Hughes said in a statement announcing the decision.
The board had been reviewing the cross-checking program since last year, when whistleblower Frances Haugen exposed the extent of the system by leaking internal company documents to the Wall Street Journal.
These documents revealed that the program was bigger and more forgiving of influential users than Meta had previously said.
In 2019, the system prevented the company’s moderators from removing photos of a nude woman posted by soccer player Neymar, even though the posting violated rules against “non-consensual intimate images”, according to a report by the WSJ.
In the opinion issued on Tuesday, the board said it agreed that Meta needs mechanisms to deal with errors, given the extraordinary volume of user-generated content that the company moderates every day.
However, he added, Meta “has a responsibility to address these larger issues in a way that benefits all users and not just a select few.”
The board made 32 recommendations that could structure the program more equitably, including transparency requirements, system impact audits and a more systematic approach to eligibility.
The Supervisory Board’s policy recommendations are non-binding, but Meta is required to respond to them, normally within 60 days.
A Supervisory Board spokeswoman said the company had requested and received an extension in this case, so it will have 90 days to respond.
Source: CNN Brasil
A journalist with over 7 years of experience in the news industry, currently working at World Stock Market as an author for the Entertainment section and also contributing to the Economics or finance section on a part-time basis. Has a passion for Entertainment and fashion topics, and has put in a lot of research and effort to provide accurate information to readers.
