Facebook to make policy changes based on Oversight Board’s recommendations

Facebook said it would not act on one of the recommendations as it would soften its enforcement of Covid-19 misinformation.

Check Facebook's response to the Oversight Board’s first round of recommendations (Pixabay)

Facebook said it would make changes to some of its policies based on the recommendations from its Oversight Board. The body had announced the first round of its rulings on content moderations last month. Some of the decisions also overturned Facebook's original actions on content moderations. The board had then issued some recommendations for the social networking platform as well.

Facebook said it is committing to action to address 11 of the recommendations of the board. The company said it had already acted one some of those recommendations. It further said it was also assessing feasibility to implement five more recommendations.

Facebook added that it would not act on one of the recommendations. The company clarified that the move could soften its approach to misinformation on the Covid-19 pandemic.

The company has also published detailed responses to the actions recommended by the board. Some measures Facebook will take are bringing more transparency, updating Instagram policies, and introducing a Transparency Centre. It added that Facebook was also calibrating the use of automation. The efforts will include making the automated detection better, analysing when human intervention and technology should be used for reviews and appeals, and bringing more transparency around automation.

Facebook agrees to some policy changes (Facebook)

Facebook agrees to some policy changes (Facebook)

“Technology allows us to detect and remove harmful content before people report it, sometimes before people see it. We typically launch automated removals when they are at least as accurate as those by content reviewers. We'll continue to evaluate which kind of reviews or appeals should be done by people and which can be safely handled by automated systems, and how best to provide transparency about how decisions were made,” Facebook said in a blog post.

Some of the other future actions are enforcing better policies around health-related misinformation.

“We'll continue to assess and develop a range of tools to address health misinformation, considering the least intrusive to expression wherever possible,” Facebook added.

The company also reiterated its commitment to work with scientists including the World Health Organisation and public health authorities on tackling the misinformation.