Facebook Cross-check criticised as unfair, under-resourced and opaque
Occurred: December 2022
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Facebook's Cross-check system was taken to task by Meta's Oversight Board for unfairly providing VIP users with less onerous rules than everyone else and having a poorly resourced and opaque system to manage them.
The Oversight Board found that the Cross-check system results in users being treated unequally, that it lead to substantial delays in taking down rule-violating content (on average, decisions took more than 5 days, with some cases taking up to 7 months), and it appears to be structured more to satisfy the company's commercial objectives rather than to advance Meta's human rights commitments.
It also found that while only 9 percent of Facebook's daily active users are from the US and Canada, 42 percent of content reviewed under Cross-check came from these two countries, and that Facebook had failed to provide crucial details about Cross-check to the Oversight Board, including criteria for adding accounts to the system.
The Oversight Board made 32 recommendations to improve the Cross-check, including developing clearer criteria for account eligibility and making these public, allowing individuals to apply for the programme proactively, visually communicating an account's Cross-check status to users, increasing resources to ensure the timely review of flagged content, and prioritising posts important for human rights and considered of special public importance.
β March 2023. Meta agreed to the Oversight Board's recommendation to publish regular Transparency Reports on Cross-check and to limit the distribution of content from high-profile individuals that likely violated platform rules until their posts had been adjudicated.
Whitelist
A whitelist or allowlist is a list or register of entities that are being provided a particular privilege, service, mobility, access or recognition. Entities on the list will be accepted, approved and/or recognized.
Source: Wikipedia π
System π€
Documents π
Meta (2022, updated 2023). Oversight Board Selects a PAO on Meta's Cross-check Policies
Meta (2022). Reviewing high-impact content accurately via our Cross-check system
Operator: Meta/Facebook
Developer: Meta/Facebook
Country: USA
Sector: Media/entertainment/sports/arts; Politics
Purpose: Moderate content
Technology: Content moderation system
Issue: Accountability; Ethics/values; Fairness; Human/civil rights; Safety; Transparency
Investigations, assessments, audits π§
Oversight Board (2021). Policy Advisory Opinion: Meta's Cross-check programmeΒ
Oversight Board (2021). Full Policy Advisory Opinion on Meta's Cross-check progam (pdf)
Oversight Board (2021). Oversight Board demands more transparency from Facebook
Oversight Board (2021). Oversight Board opens public comments for policy advisory opinion on cross-check
News, commentary, analysis ποΈ
Page info
Type: Issue
Published: August 2024