Welcome to the FOB Blog: Overseeing the Facebook Oversight Board.
Lawfare is here for you for all things Facebook Oversight Board. The Oversight Board is a grand experiment aimed at improving the way that companies moderate the speech that they host. No one knows if the Oversight Board will "work," and there's no universal understanding of what "success" would even mean, or if the FOB could ever plausibly achieve it. But the FOB is worth paying attention to either way.
Our Facebook Oversight Board blog (FOBblog) will be tracking the Oversight Board's activity with convenient links below to information about the Oversight Board, statistics about the Oversight Board, a collection of documents related to the cases, a compilation of Lawfare analysis and Arbiters of Truth podcasts about the Oversight Board. Click the green buttons below to explore. We will be growing, so stay tuned!
Lawfare analysis on the Facebook Oversight Board:
-
Meta’s Oversight Board Often Turns in Its Homework Late. Does it Matter?
Our analysis shows that Meta’s Oversight Board has missed more than 20 percent of its decision deadlines. Why should we care? -
Twitter is the (Very Short Term) Winner of the Trump Oversight Board Saga
Twitter’s ban of Trump marked the defining moment of the Great Deplatforming. But all the attention surrounding the FOB decision has precipitated a dramatic reversal of fortune. -
Facebook’s Responses in the Trump Case Are Better Than a Kick in the Teeth, but Not Much
Today was the 30-day deadline for Facebook’s responses to the policy recommendations in the FOB’s decision on the suspension of Trump’s account. The responses are underwhelming. -
Is the Facebook Oversight Board an International Human Rights Tribunal?
Comparing the Facebook Oversight Board to an international human rights tribunal reveals that the board’s ability to hold Facebook accountable will depend on its ability to develop human rights norms, in... -
It's Not Over. The Oversight Board’s Trump Decision Is Just the Start.
What do the details of today's decision reveal about Facebook’s rules, and the FOB’s role in reviewing them? -
What the Oversight Board Should Do With Trump
Can Facebook’s independent overseers make an easy case hard?