What is the Meta Oversight Board and Why it is Important to Study its Decisions?
What is the Meta Oversight Board and Why it is Important to Study its Decisions?

Author(s): Bilyana Petkova
Subject(s): Law, Constitution, Jurisprudence, Constitutional Law, Human Rights and Humanitarian Law
Published by: Университет за национално и световно стопанство (УНСС)
Keywords: human rights; freedom of speech online; Meta Oversight Board; social media companies; content moderation
Summary/Abstract: This paper offers a concise overview on the importance to study the Meta Oversight Board. Today social media platforms moderate our speech – they take down or leave speech online when it is flagged for being illegal or offensive. This role leaves behind the public courts who are however still responsible primarily for adjudicating on speech questions in the physical world. Is there an online/offline divide when it comes to the standard of protecting free speech worldwide? The paper first introduces the institutional structure of a novel private body that arguably plays a crucial role in protecting free speech worldwide – the Meta Oversight Board. It then pinpoints to the differences in the way freedom of expression is adjudged by the apex public courts in the United States and in Europe in order to reveal the potential reconciliatory role of the Board. Whereas the European public courts tend to afford an almost absolute protection to privacy, the US Supreme Court has offered an almost absolute protection to free speech. Another divergence that comes on top is the US-EU divergent judicial interpretation on the role of the Internet in an online speech environment. Yet other Transatlantic differences, not discussed but identified by the author, concern the treatment of hate speech and disinformation. Finally, the paper sets out the hypothesis that there is a global, private standard on online free speech in the making. Developed by the Meta Oversight Board, this standard has not been studied yet. The paper urges further study into the contours of this novel standard.

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