Facebook ‘Supreme Court’ Demands More Censorship of Politicians, VIPs

The Facebook Oversight Board, popularly known as the platform’s “Supreme Court,” said on Tuesday that the company’s controversial system that applies a different moderation process for posts from VIPs is set up to “satisfy business concerns” and risks doing harm to normal users. The board, stacked with leftists, believes the answer is more censorship.

CNN reports that in a nearly 50-page advisory, the independent board financed by Facebook (now known as Meta) called for the company to increase transparency about its “cross-check” system and how it works, and also urged the company to take steps to hide potentially rule-violating content from its most prominent users, including politicians and celebrities, while it is under review to avoid spreading it further. The advisory included more than two dozen recommendations for improving the program.

In November, the Wall Street Journal published a report that revealed that the system shielded some VIP users, including politicians, celebrities, journalists, and Facebook business partners like advertisers, from the company’s normal content moderation process. Facebook reportedly allowed some so-called VIPs to post rule-violating content without consequences. The program included 5.8 million users as of 2020, according to the report from the WSJ.

Facebook agreed that the criticism of the system was fair at the time, but added that it was created to improve the accuracy of moderation on content that “could require more understanding.”

In response to the report, the Oversight Board stated that Facebook failed to provide necessary information about the cross-check system. The board further claimed that Facebook failed to provide important information during the board’s review of the company’s decision to suspend former President Donald Trump. Facebook then requested that the Oversight Board review the cross-check system.

The cross-check system essentially means that when a VIP user posts content that breaks Facebook’s rules, the post is not immediately removed but is left up until it can be reviewed by a human moderator.

Read more at CNN here.

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan