Facebook offers to discuss Twitter moderation with Elon Musk

A few hours after Elon Musk announced the creation of a “content moderation council” for Twitter, the independent oversight board of Meta Platform (Facebook) issued a statement indicating that it would “welcome the opportunity to discuss in more detail“Twitter’s plans for content moderation.

The Oversight Board tweeted,

“Independent oversight of content moderation has a critical role to play in building trust in platforms and ensuring fair treatment of users. It’s a model we’ve been testing since 2020. We would welcome the opportunity to discuss Twitter’s plans with the company in more detail.”

In Facebook’s official words, “the oversight board was created to help Facebook answer some of the toughest questions around free speech online: what to take down, what to leave up and why.“Facebook realized fairly early on that with two billion active users on its platform, it should not be the sole authority making decisions about free speech and online safety.

Overview of Meta’s Supervisory Board

The board uses its autonomous judgment to help people’s right to free expression, articulation, and assurance that these privileges are considered fairly. The board’s decision to approve or change Facebook’s content choices will be binding, implying that Facebook must execute them or violate the law.

In order to establish and ensure a global perspective, the oversight board includes individuals from a variety of social and skill backgrounds, reflecting the diversity of the Facebook platform itself. These individuals were elected because they are professional and experienced in thinking and living together, are able to make choices and make sense of a set of policies or standards, and are familiar with digital content and the administration of new technologies.

How they can help Twitter

The Oversight Board believes it can help Twitter by defining the basic structure of the board and working together on a more nuanced standard protocol. Eventually, this protocol could take the form of a universally accepted guideline for all social media on the global web.

As of this writing, Elon Musk has not yet responded to the proposal and further updates will be made here.