Earlier this year, Facebook provided an overview of their previously announced oversight board . On Monday, Facebook announced that they will be consulting the public to help shape the way the board will operate. Tech Crunch provided an in depth look into what the questionnaire looks like.
How does this questionaire work?
The submission is a two-part process. The first part is purely a questionnaire, with the second part acting as an area for free form responses allowing for input from users.
From Facebooks Questionnaire Outline
“The questionnaire responses will feed into the engagement happening in round tables and workshops around the world. The free-form questions will focus on membership, case decisions and governance, and will provide invaluable design and structural options. Responses will be accepted for the next six weeks.”
The first portion includes simpler questions- how long members should serve and how many there should be. The second portion or “free-form” questions, pertain more to topics such as the eligibility of the oversight board. For example, how should members come into power and what should their qualifications be?
Questions like these seem pretty straight forward for an exercise of this type. However, the questionnaire does contain numerous areas that require the respondents to take time and consider their answer more carefully.
One question, presents the classic question of quantity or quality. Should the oversight board dedicate more time to making certain decisions each year, or should they focus on making more decisions? You can see how this could lend to a layered answer.
In their article, Tech Crunch raised some apt points about all the factors one should consider when answering this question.
“While obviously all cases reviewed should be well-researched, if you believe Facebook’s board should resemble the U.S. courts system, then there should be guidance around how long its board members have to make a decision. Otherwise, it could see some of the toughest content policy decisions tied up in never-ending deliberations, with the board citing “more research is needed” to rule. That wouldn’t be fair to those whose content is held hostage in the meantime. But the question doesn’t allow for this level of nuance — so you’d need to take to the essay portion to share this position.”
Whether all responses will be as “nuanced” as the one above is yet to be seen. We will know in the next 6 weeks what comes of these public submissions. Facebook will officially disclose the report of the result in June.
What this means for the Digital You
Companies like Facebook have the potential to severely affect the Digital You. For this reason, you should stay aware of how these companies are evolving in the digital landscape.
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