Oversight board slams Meta for special treatment of high-profile users

An oversight panel said Tuesday that Facebook and Instagram put business over human rights when giving special treatment to rule-breaking posts by politicians, celebrities and other high-profile users.

A year-long probe by an independent "top court" created by the tech firm ended with it calling for the overhaul of a system known as "cross-check" that shields elite users from Facebook's content rules.

"While Meta told the board that cross-check aims to advance Meta's human rights commitments, we found that the program appears more directly structured to satisfy business concerns," the panel said in a report.

"By providing extra protection to certain users selected largely according to business interests, cross-check allows content which would otherwise be removed quickly to remain up for a longer period, potentially causing harm."

Cross-check is implemented in a way that does not meet Meta's human rights responsibilities, according to the board.

Meta told the board the program is intended to provide an additional layer of human review to posts by high-profile users that initially appear to break rules, the report indicated.

That has resulted in posts that would have been immediately removed being left up during a review process that could take days or months, according to the report.

"This means that, because of cross-check, content identified as breaking Meta's rules is left up on Facebook and Instagram when it is most viral and could cause harm," the board said.

Meta also failed to determine whether the process had resulted in more accurate decisions regarding content removal, the board said.

Cross-check is flawed in "key areas," including user equality and transparency, the board concluded, recommending 32 changes to the system.

Content identified as violating Meta's rules with "high severity" in a first assessment "should be removed or hidden while further review is taking place," the board said.

"Such content should not be allowed to remain on the platform accruing views simply because the person who posted it is a business partner or celebrity."

The Oversight Board said it learned of cross-check in 2021, while looking into and eventually endorsing Facebook's decision to suspend former US president Donald Trump.

In a statement Tuesday, Facebook Vice President for Global Affairs Nick Clegg said the firm has agreed with the board to review its recommendations and respond within 90 days.

He said in the past year, Facebook has made improvements to the process, including widening eligibility for cross-check reviews while also implementing more controls on how users are added to the system.

"We built the cross-check system to prevent potential over-enforcement... and to double-check cases where there could be a higher risk for a mistake or when the potential impact of a mistake is especially severe," such as journalistic reporting from conflict zones, Clegg said.

Meta expected to face new fines after EU privacy ruling
Paris (AFP) Dec 6, 2022 - Meta is expected to face another large fine after Europe's data watchdog on Tuesday imposed binding decisions concerning the treatment of personal data by the owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.

The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) said in a statement that the rulings concerned Meta's use of data for targeted advertising, but did not give details or recommend fines.

Authorities in Ireland, where Meta has its European headquarters, have a month to impose the ruling.

Previous interventions by the EDPS have led to large fines on tech platforms, including a 405-million-euro fine on Instagram in September over a breach in the handling of children's data.

The latest case follows complaints by privacy campaigning group Noyb that Meta's three apps fail to meet Europe's strict rules on data protection.

Noyb says they flouted the landmark General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that came into force in May 2018 by failing to give users the option of holding back their personal data and blocking targeted advertising.

Facebook argues these are vital to its functioning.

"This is not the final decision and it is too early to speculate," said a Meta spokesman, adding that EU law left open a possibility for targeted ads.

In October 2021, the Irish Data Protection Authority (DPC) recommended a fine of just 28 to 36 million euros for lack of transparency.

But this was rejected as far too low by France's CNIL (the National Commission for Technology and Freedoms) and other national watchdogs, who asked the EDPS to investigate the case.

"The EU regulators' decision, if it is upheld, would have a dramatic impact on Meta's revenue in Europe," said Debra Aho Williamson, an analyst at Insider Intelligence.

The decision would be a "kneecapping" of Meta's ability to sell targeted advertising and given the stakes, Meta will "fight vigorously to defend its business", she said.

According to the Politico news site, internal documents show that Meta earmarked three billion euros for possible European fines in 2022 and 2023.

As well as the Instagram fine in September, Meta was fined a further 265 million euros last month over a data leak that saw half a billion users' details published on a hacking website.

That adds to a 60-million-euro fine in France in January over its use of "cookies", the digital trackers used to target advertising.

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