Facebook critics start rival, independent 'oversight board'

The group says Facebook is taking too long to set up its oversight panel, which they argue is too limited in its scope and autonomy.

The critics, who include early investor Roger McNamee, Filipino journalist Maria Ressa and Shoshana Zuboff, author of Surveillance Capitalism, are warning that Facebook is already being used to undermine the integrity of the U.S.

Its 20 members, which will eventually grow to 40, include a former prime minister of Denmark, the former editor-in-chief of the Guardian newspaper, along with legal scholars, human rights experts and journalists, such as Tawakkol Karmanm, a Nobel Laureate and journalist from Yemen, and Julie Owono, a digital rights advocate.

The critic-launched group, meanwhile, also includes Toomas Henrik Ilves, a former president of Estonia, Derrick Johnson, the president of the NAACP, Rashad Robinson, the president Color of Change and Reed Galen, co-founder of the Lincoln Project.

There's also Ressa, CEO of the news site Rappler, who's been critical of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and was convicted of libel and sentenced to jail in June in a decision called a major blow to press freedom in the country. She has been an outspoken critic of Facebook, and said in August that the tech platforms have created a system where lies laced with anger and hate spread faster than facts.

Guardian journalist and Facebook critic Carole Cadwalladr, who helped set up the group, said its goal is to provide platform to amplify the voices that need to be counterbalancing Facebooks denials and disclaimers.

In a statement Thursday, Facebook said it ran a year-long global consultation to set up the Oversight Board as a long-lasting institution that will provide binding, independent oversight over some of our hardest content decisions.