According to the latest news, Facebook is considering creating a commission that would weigh in on global election related issues on Facebook. This was first published by The New York Times. Facebook has discussed with academics and policy experts about the commission. According to The New York Times report, we can expect Facebook to announce its commission this fall ahead of the 2022 US midterm elections.
The way Facebook’s independent Oversight Board helps review content moderation appeals, it sounds as if Facebook could ask the election commission to particularly handle some decisions about election contents. This has the potential of reducing the perception that Facebook’s decisions about content are politically biased. Facebook has faced this criticism lately.
However, as of now, it is not clear if this election commission would operate with the same level of independence as the Oversight Board does or they will be bounded by limitations.
If Facebook is considering an election commission version of the Oversight Board then this would mean the Oversight Board is taking some pressure off the social network in terms of content moderation. Note that recently, the Oversight Board has come under some criticism.
The conservatives are not happy with the Board’s ruling that Facebook can keep former President Donald Trump’s ban in place. Here, if Facebook has a dedicated election commission then it would indicate Facebook is making choices about election content for the sake of policy, not politics.
