Facebook’s Civil Rights Audit 2. Oversight Board The June 2019 Report described Facebook’s commitment to establish an Oversight Board independent of Facebook that would have the capacity to review individual content decisions and make determinations as to whether the content should stay up or be removed—determinations which would be binding on Facebook (unless implementing the determination could violate the law). While the concept and creation of the Oversight Board was independent of the Audit, Facebook nevertheless requested that the Auditors provide input on the structure, governance, and composition of the board. Facebook states that its Oversight Board charter was the product of a robust global consultation process of workshops and roundtables in 88 different countries, a public proposal process, and consultations with over 2,200 stakeholders, including civil rights experts. The charter, which was published in September 2019, describes the Board’s function, operation, and design. Facebook also commissioned and published a detailed human rights review of the Oversight Board in order to inform the Board’s final charter, bylaws, and operations, and create a means for ensuring consistency with human rights-based approaches. Once the charter was published, Facebook selected 4 co-chairs of the Board. Those co-chairs and Facebook then together selected the next 16 Board members. All 20 members were announced in May 2020. Looking ahead, in partnership with Facebook, the Board will select an additional 20 members. Once the initial Board reaches its 40 members, the Board’s Membership Committee will have the exclusive responsibility of selecting members to fill any vacancies and to grow the Board beyond 40 members, if they so choose. All members, once selected by Facebook and the Board, are formally appointed by the Trustees who govern the Oversight Board Trust (the independent entity established to maintain procedural and administrative oversight over theBoard). Facebook compiled feedback and recommendations on Board member composition and selection process from external partners, consultants, and Facebook employees; and through a Recommendations Portal that the company initiated in September 2019 to allow individual members of the public to make recommendations. In the future, the Recommendations Portal will be the sole mechanism by which the Board will receive recommendations about potential new members. The Auditors were repeatedly consulted during the process of building the initial slate of Board members and strongly advocated for the Board’s membership to be diverse, representative, and inclusive of those with expertise in civil rights. While the Auditors did not have input into all Board member selections or veto power over specific nominees, the inclusion of diverse views and experiences, human rights advocates, and civil rights experts are positive developments that help lend the Board credibility in the Auditors’ view. 3. Appeals & Penalties (i) Appeals. In 2018, Facebook launched a process allowing users to appeal content decisions. The process allows for appeals by both the person that posted content found to violate Community Standards and by users who report someone else’s content as violating. Still, Facebook users have felt that the company’s appeals system was opaque and ineffective at correcting errors made by content moderators. The Auditors have met with several users who explained that they felt that they landed in “Facebook jail” (temporarily suspended from 46