pte20210415002 Media / communication, politics / law
In future, users can report unsuitable content to an independent supervisory body
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Facebook: Users report inappropriate content (Photo: unsplash.com, Nghia Nguyen) |
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Menlo Park (pte002 / 04/15/2021 / 06:05) – If Facebook or Instagram refuse to remove unsuitable content, users will in future also be able to contact the oversight board http://oversightboard.com turn. The independent supervisory body recently announced that it would expand its area of responsibility and also receive and examine complaints relating to reports, photos or videos from the aforementioned portals. Its decisions should then be binding for the site operator, according to the committee.
Expansion of competencies
“From now on, users can report content to the oversight board if they want them to be removed from Facebook or Instagram,” said the independent supervisory body. This applies in particular in cases where the operators of the online social communities refuse to remove reported content from their pages. “If the users have already exhausted the usual complaint process, they can contest the company’s decision by having the relevant content checked by us,” it says.
The Oversight Board is thus expanding its competencies: “Until now, users could only contact us to restore content that they believed had been wrongly blocked,” the committee explains the details. Now it is also possible to report content that is to be deleted. “The board will rely on its independent judgment to determine what can and cannot stay online. Our decision will be binding on Facebook,” the governing body said.
Appeal against decision
From a practical point of view, the whole thing works as follows: When a user has gone through the complaint process on Facebook, the Oversight Board sends a specific reference number to their inbox. With this he can then officially raise an objection to the decision of the site operator and instruct the supervisory body to carry out a detailed examination. “Objections are just as possible with postings and status updates as with photos, videos, comments or shared content,” emphasize its members.
Since the content on Facebook and Instagram is online longer, the control body assumes that several users will report the same content. “In these cases we will collect and process the user complaints in a joint file,” describes the planned procedure. In order to protect privacy, users only want to publish personal information if they expressly consent, the committee promises.
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