Facebook’s Leftist-Heavy Oversight Board to Launch Next Month: Report

September 25th, 2020 3:32 PM

The rise of Facebook’s infamous and overwhelmingly liberal Oversight Board is reportedly nigh.

“Facebook’s long-delayed oversight board, which will have power to overrule Mark Zuckerberg on what content to censor, will launch next month ahead of the US presidential election,” the New York Post (NY Post) summarized in a September 24 article.

The Post illustrated that the Oversight Board has been dubbed Facebook’s “Supreme Court,” including “a former prime minister, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and a number of constitutional law experts among its 20 members.” The article specified that the board “will initially have the power to review decisions to take down posts from Facebook and Instagram, as well as to recommend policy changes.” Whether the board will be involved in moderating content regarding the 2020 election remains to be seen:

“Alan Rusbridger, former editor-in-chief of Britain’s Guardian newspaper and a member of the board, told Reuters Thursday that he did not know whether the board would hear cases related to November’s election, but said that cases involving President Trump were not among those that the board had looked at for trial runs.”

The Oversight Board will reportedly be the appeals process for users who feel they have been unjustly censored by Facebook’s rules.

While there are a mere two non-liberal voices on the board, there are 18 liberal members who have either radical ties or have made extreme comments. 

The Post also illuminated a couple key facts: the board reportedly “will grow to about 40 members,” and “Facebook has pledged $130 million to fund for at least six years, will make public, binding decisions on controversial cases.”

The Free Speech Alliance (FSA), a coalition of more than 70 conservative organizations, scorched the mostly liberal board in May. The FSA declared: “Conservatives warned from the start that any new oversight mechanism was fraught with danger. Our fears were well founded. This new board will damage Facebook more than it can imagine.”

Media Research Center founder and President Brent Bozell raked Facebook over the coals at a press conference for even assembling the board in the first place, proclaiming: “If Facebook wants to be a real platform, let people speak and get rid of this Oversight Board.” 

Bozell explained further that the first 20 members of the Oversight Board only feature five members from the United States. “Seventy-five percent of them are making decisions on content based on free speech values that are not based on the Constitution.” Facebook itself confessed that far-left organizations behind the platform’s “civil rights” audit have had input on what members were chosen for the board.

Four of the board’s members are connected with liberal billionaire mega donor George Soros, giving him more influence on the board than the entire conservative movement. 

The board’s most radical member, for example, is Tawakkol Karman, a supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood. She announced in a June 7 tweet amidst international destructive protests that she is “standing with the revolutions!” The Muslim Brotherhood has a violent reputation, including its Hamas division, the terrorist organization that attacks Israel. The Facebook Oversight Board announced Karman as a member on May 6 and has been heavily criticized for it.

Conservatives are under attack. Contact Facebook headquarters at 1-650-308-7300 and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on “hate speech” and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us at the Media Research Center contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.