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Facebook critics launch independent oversight board to monitor handling of the election

Warning of an urgent threat to democracy, civil rights activists say they've formed an independent Facebook oversight board to scrutinize the role the social media giant is playing in the 2020 election.

Citizens says it recruited academics,researchers and other independent experts to monitor Facebook's handling ofhate speech, misinformation and other content that could undermine the election.

The oversight board has the support of theStop Hate For Profit Coalition, which organized an advertising boycott of Facebook over the summer, the nonprofit said.

In a statement, Facebook dismissed the effort as mostly longtime critics creating a new channel for existing criticisms.

Johnson will siton the board which also includes Rashad Robinson, president of Color of Change; Yal Eisenstat, a former elections integrity head at Facebook; Roger McNamee, an early Facebook investor; Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League; Toomas Hendrik Ilves, ex-president of Estonia; and Maria Ressa, founder and CEO of the online news service Rappler in the Philippines.

Among those selected to serve on it were Denmarks first female Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt and Tawakkol Karman, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate from Yemen. Five Americans are on the board, including former federal judge Michael McConnell and constitutional law expert Jamal Greene.

In July, civil rights auditors warnedthat Facebooks failure to rein in toxic speech, racism and misinformation could have serious repercussions on the presidential election and may even suppress voter turnout.

Facebook is already being used to suppress the Black vote in 2020 and weve seen all sorts of attacks on Black voters across the country, Robinson said in a statement.

Facebook officials told USA TODAY this week that it is prepared to institute break glass measures to ensure any such posts are seen by fewer people.

Original article
Author: Jessica Guynn

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