Maina Kiai who is a human rights activist and Director of Human Rights Watch’s Global Alliances and Partnerships program. Has been appointed as a Board Member to the newly created Oversight Board for Facebook and Instagram Content.
The Oversight Board will be expected to review certain content decisions by Facebook and Instagram and make binding decisions based on respect for freedom of expression and human rights.
The Oversight Board is expected to tackle increasingly complex and contentious debates about what types of content should and should not be permitted on Facebook and Instagram and who should decide. The Board will prioritize cases that potentially impact many users, are of critical importance to public discourse, or raise questions about Facebook’s policies.
Decisions made by the Board will be implemented by Facebook, as long as they do not violate the law. Oversight Board Members are independent from the company, funded by an independent trust and cannot be removed by Facebook based on their decisions.
Maina will work in collaboration with 19 other Members who speak over 27 languages and have diverse professional, cultural, political, and religious backgrounds and viewpoints. Over time the Board will grow to around 40 Members. While no one can claim to represent everyone, Members are confident that the global composition will underpin, strengthen and guide decision-making.
Maina Kiai had this to say, “We have been talking for a long time about creating some kind of independent governance structure for making big companies more accountable on some of the most important decisions they make. State regulation is important, and I think we need to make progress there too, but I think the Board is an exciting experiment and I’m excited to be part of it.”