Facebook Oversight Board Member Says Fact-Checking Outside Jurisdiction

A member of Facebook's independent oversight board said this week that the company's third-party fact-checking program is outside the panel's jurisdiction, which "makes a lot of people quite nervous," Politico reports.

Michael McConnell, a former federal judge who now sits on the oversight board, said during the Technology Policy Institute's Aspen Forum on Monday that Facebook's fact-checking operation is "something that we don't review, and yet this is something if you ask people what they think is a problem at Facebook, that's on a lot of people's lists."

Julie Owono, the executive director of French civil liberties organization Internet Sans Frontière who is also a member of the oversight board, added that one "big challenge" they face when it comes to disinformation is its prevalence on WhatsApp, the encrypted messaging app that Facebook owns, which is also outside of the panel's jurisdiction.

"We do not want to undermine the privacy features that come with encryption, but at the same time, it's a big challenge because a lot of messages are being forwarded with a lot of disinformation," she said.

McConnell said that WhatsApp is "really a different kind of animal" that "wouldn't be on my list of the most important priorities."

He also noted that the board shouldn't be involved in the decision whether or not it's safe to allow former President Donald Trump to return to the platform.

"We're like a court of appeals; we're not like the police department." Owono added. "I don't even think it would be that productive."

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