FOB Analysis on Lawfare

Lawfare Articles

July 15, 2022: evelyn douek and Tia Sewell analyzed the board's track record of overdue decisions, explaining that the tardiness violates the board's bylaws.

June 10, 2021: Jacob Schulz explained why Twitter is the real near-term winner of the whole FOB-Trump ordeal. 

June 4, 2021: Evelyn Douek argued that Facebook's responses to the Oversight Board's policy recommendations in the Trump suspension ruling were underwhelming.

May 13, 2021: Laurence Helfer and Molly K. Land compared the Oversight Board to an international human rights tribunal in order to examine the board's ability to develop and incentivize adherence to human rights norms.

May 5, 2021: Evelyn Douek discussed the Oversight Board's decision to uphold Facebook's suspension of Donald Trump and explained what the decision reveals about the FOB's role in overseeing Facebook.

May 4, 2021: Benjamin Wittes contended that the Facebook Oversight Board should not overturn the platform’s decision to suspend Trump in the aftermath of the Capitol attack.

March 8, 2021: Vicki Jackson and Martha Minow argued that the Oversight Board should not reverse Facebook's indefinite suspension of Donald Trump.

March 5, 2021: Carly Miller urged Facebook to better centralize its policies on health misinformation, as the Oversight Board recommended the company do in the Hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin and COVID-19 case.

March 4, 2021: Abby Lemert summarized what the available public comments submitted to the Oversight Board concerning the Trump suspension case say—finding a surprising consensus in support of the ban.

March 1, 2021: Evelyn Douek unpacked Facebook's responses to recommendations from the Oversight Board's first set of decisions.

Jan. 29, 2021: Jacob Schulz explained what the Oversight Board's first five decisions—four of which overturned Facebook's moderation decisions—actually say.

Jan. 28, 2021: Evelyn Douek discussed the broader implications of the Facebook Oversight Board's first five decisions.

Jan. 21, 2021: Evelyn Douek rejoiced that Facebook did indeed refer the Trump ban to the Oversight Board and queried what the significance of the move might be. 

Jan. 12, 2021: Jacob Schulz detailed the first slate of cases on the Oversight Board’s docket and discussed the picks reveal about what the FOB might be trying to accomplish.

Jan. 11, 2021: Evelyn Douek challenged Facebook to refer to the Oversight Board its decision to suspend Donald Trump’s account. 

Jan. 20, 2020: Evelyn Douek argued that the Oversight Board’s bylaws showed “promising signs about Facebook’s commitment to the Oversight Board experiment.”

Sept. 25, 2019: Evelyn Douek explored some of the key takeaways from the Oversight Board’s final charter. 

Sept. 16, 2019: Evelyn Douek wrote about why Facebook might have chosen to release an “update” to the values that inform Facebook’s Community Standards. 

Nov. 6, 2019: Radha Iyenger Plumb described the research she conducted with Paul Gowder for the Oversight Board about existing models of oversight, both corporate and public.

June 27, 2019: Evelyn Douek and Kate Klonick highlighted some of the big takeaways from a report released by Facebook which details the feedback they’ve gotten in response to Zuckerberg’s Nov. 2018 announcement. 

Jan. 31, 2019: Evelyn Douek teased out the important aspects of the Oversight Board’s draft charter.

Nov. 19, 2018: Evelyn Douek detailed what Zuckerberg had to say in his blog post formally announcing the creation of the Oversight Board.

Apr. 5, 2018: Evelyn Douek reacted to Mark Zuckerberg’s comments on Vox’s “The Ezra Klein Show,” where Zuckerberg floated the idea of a “Supreme Court” for Facebook. 

Arbiters of Truth Podcasts

November 18, 2021: Evelyn Douek and Quinta Jurecic spoke about the board's first transparency report, what cases it had selected and how the board's role has evolved over its first year.
August 5, 2021: Evelyn Douek talked with Jennifer Broxmeyer and Rachel Lambert, both of whom work at Facebook on Facebook’s side of the Oversight Board experiment, to discuss the first six months of the Oversight Board’s work.
May 6, 2021: Benjamin Wittes sat down with Evelyn Douek, Quinta Jurecic and Jacob Schulz to discuss the Facebook Oversight Board's ruling on the Trump suspension case.
Jan. 14, 2021: Evelyn Douek and Quinta Jurecic chatted with Jonathan Zittrain, the George Bemis Professor of International Law at Harvard Law School, about the content moderation decisions that followed the Jan. 6 Capitol violence, including Facebook’s suspension of Donald Trump and decision to refer the suspension to the Oversight Board.
July 30, 2020: Quinta Jurecic and Kate Klonick spoke about the Oversight Board and its problems with Jillian C. York, the director for International Freedom of Expression at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Nov. 14, 2019: Evelyn Douek talked about the Oversight Board with Zoe Darmé, then manager of Facebook's Global Affairs and Governance team, who formerly led the global outreach efforts in support of the Oversight Board.