I have some thoughts about the Facebook oversight board.

1) the Facebook oversight board is paid by Facebook. (yeah, through a trust, no diff)
2) the Facebook oversight board is wholly unaccountable in any democratic sense
3) its an insane way to think about how to govern speech

if Exxon hired a bunch of academics and thought leaders and paid them through a trust to occasionally tell them where not to drill, i would not say we'd figured out a mechanism for dealing with fossil fuel

I have so little respect for the Facebook Oversight Board that I don't even want to debate it, it is, as they say, outside the compass of serious political debate.

what is inside the compass is: ban algorithmic targeting. antitrust.

I have some experience being paid to help make decisions by an institution. The institution is the Open Society Foundation. I loved being an advisory board member there, and weighing in on decisions. And it definitely gave me warm feelings about OSF that create a conflict with..

My ability to harshly judge it. I got to know people through it, because of it, on staff, and other board members. It was enriching and valuable and I liked to think I contributed. And it wasn't the goal, but it made me affectionate towards OSF.

Being on Facebook's board will inevitably make the Oversight Board members (maybe some, all, many? we'll never know! that's how influence works!) more affectionate and defensive about the institution as a whole. So if you get asked to be on the Board, say no.

SO: we have a problem with how Facebook is deciding what is good health news and what is bad health news. Which is a problem because of Facebook's ginormous power.

The answer is policy, not a whitewash board.

1) Break it up so that a few companies don't get to be the ministers of truth, with their hired judges.

2) Ban algorithmic decisionmaking for social media companies of a certain size. Better to ban the business model that promotes disinfo than decide what is disinformation.

There is one and only one thing the Facebook Oversight Board could do that would impress me: go to Congress to testify about why we need to break up Facebook, using their own outsized power as evidence.

I am writing this because I just learned someone I really admire, Pam Karlan, was on it. I just don't focus on the FOB because I don't take it seriously, and I was really knocked aside when I heard it. I couldn't sleep. I get the temptation folks, but just no, don't join the FOB.