I do learn from insider reporting but a "definitive" piece would be framed around how the Facebook Oversight Board is an attempt to gain legitimacy *without* giving up control over fundamental things. And providing this kind of access to get these pieces out is part of that play. https://twitter.com/benyt/status/1360205251828207616

In fact, these insider pieces add important evidence about the real nature of the Facebook Oversight Board: that it is being rolled out BY FACEBOOK as part of a PR push, with Facebook trying to elbow it into a position where we treat it as a "Supreme Court" despite the obvious.

It doesn't make the Oversight Board irrelevant, and I think it's fine for people to make different calculations against joining such organizations, with the hope of being part of insider reform. That has always had a historical place, and it is not always an illegitimate choice.

But we don't have to get played about the nature of the attempt, and what's going on. It's especially important because if we get played like this, we won't be able to talk about what actually needs to happen—the part that's not on Facebook, but on us. The part we failed.

An "Oversight Board" that has no oversight over: what gets optimized, design, amplification, surveillance microtargeting, custom/lookalike audiences... OH LOOK SQUIRREL. This is a very very very narrow content moderation appeal process maybe slightly better than the previous one.