Facebook is at the center of the hottest controversies over freedom of speech, and its opaque, unaccountable decisions have angered people across the political spectrum. Mark Zuckerberg’s answer to this mess is to outsource: Facebook recently created and endowed a permanent body it calls the Oversight Board—like a Supreme Court whose decisions will be binding for the company. In this collaboration between The New Yorker Radio Hour and Radiolab, the producer Simon Adler explores the creation of the Oversight Board with Kate Klonick, whose reporting appears in The New Yorker. And David Remnick talks with Klonick about the board’s biggest case so far: whether to reinstate Donald Trump on the platform, after he was banned for his role in inciting the January 6th riot at the Capitol.
The Supreme Court of Facebook
Mark Zuckerberg has outsourced crucial decisions about free speech to a new body called the Oversight Board. In collaboration with Radiolab, we look at how and why it came to be.
The People Who Will Decide Donald Trump’s Fate on Facebook
A new Oversight Board launched by Facebook is able to overrule the company’s own decisions about content. Now it will rule on whether Trump should remain banned.
