It was only a day ago that we learned that Twitter was experimenting with a “feature” on its iOS app that would prompt you if your tweet had hostile language in it and give you pause before posting that tweet you composed when things got heated online. It’s a feature nobody asked for, and they made it well known in the comments.
Now Facebook has announced the 20 members of its new oversight board that “will make final and binding decisions on whether specific content should be allowed or removed from Facebook and Instagram (which Facebook owns),” according to the New York Times.
Here’s a former prime minister of Denmark announcing she’ll be on the oversight board.
Big news from me today. Have joined Facebook Oversight Board as co-chair. An honour to serve the online community. We are basically building a new model for platform governance https://t.co/nnMm3WJIv8
— Helle Thorning S (@HelleThorning_S) May 6, 2020
These are the people Facebook put in charge of deciding whether or not to delete controversial posts
-FB announced the first 20 ppl on its Oversight Board, a sort of supreme court for content
– It could help avoid accusations of bias on @Facebook's parthttps://t.co/2o7s8VzeAM— Jessica Bursztynsky (@jbursz) May 6, 2020
So who else makes up this 20-member star chamber? Mark Dice decided to have a look:
The censorship of conservatives will get even worse, but now Facebook will pretend it's being done by a "fair" third-party, instead of by their hand. https://t.co/KvxDnasILW
— Mark Dice (@MarkDice) May 6, 2020
Here's a list of the new Facebook Overlords. Dig up their tweets guys. Let's show how bias, hateful, and unAmerican they are. https://t.co/mPFjepmbIJ pic.twitter.com/8zyC7NHx5o
— Mark Dice (@MarkDice) May 6, 2020
Meet another "fair and impartial" member of Facebook's new @OversightBoard who will decide what content to censor from social media. https://t.co/jdk7oIRX0i
— Mark Dice (@MarkDice) May 6, 2020
This woman is on Facebook's new "independent" @OversightBoard and will decide who to ban, and what content gets censored for "hate speech." pic.twitter.com/FfumKJ3xtL
— Mark Dice (@MarkDice) May 6, 2020
Not a joke. She is.
— Mark Dice (@MarkDice) May 6, 2020
Hey, it’s Professor Pamela Karlan, the one who testified before the House Judiciary Committee on that Ukraine call and impressed PBS’s Yamiche Alcindor with her “fire words,” which included a really bad “joke” that dragged Barron Trump into the mess.
Fire words from Professor Pamela S. Karlan.
"While the president can name his son Barron (Trump), he can't make him a Barron (a rank of nobility or title of honour in England, often hereditary)."
Wow.
— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) December 4, 2019
“Wow.”
Co-chair of Facebook's new "independent" @OversightBoard (Censorship Overlords) wishes Obama was still President. #OversightBoardExposed https://t.co/hMPPFGoUYM
— Mark Dice (@MarkDice) May 6, 2020
Another "fair and impartial" member of Facebook's new #OversightBoard who will decide which uses get banned and what content gets censored. https://t.co/F49xHsWr8a
— Mark Dice (@MarkDice) May 6, 2020
Facebook @OversightBoard member Alan Rusbridger calls for Trump press conferences to be censored. https://t.co/br4zgEgdd1
— Mark Dice (@MarkDice) May 6, 2020
We haven’t been this confident about social media doing the right thing since Facebook teamed up with Snopes, which “fact-checks” articles from the Babylon Bee. Here’s a flashback from August:
In case @BuzzFeedBen needs reminding, here's the message we got from Facebook last year: pic.twitter.com/nyXBbdAMR5
— Kyle Mann (@The_Kyle_Mann) August 1, 2019
Related:
Two of the academics behind that 'horrible' Snopes fact-check of The Babylon Bee get funding from Facebook https://t.co/ehvozeDflW
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) August 17, 2019
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