Algorithms, appeals, and avenues: mapping meta’s oversight board across continents
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Over the past several months, I have conducted a comprehensive analysis of the Meta Oversight Board’s 128 published decisions to understand not only which cases the Board elects to review, but also the geographic and topical distribution of its work. My interest in this subject was piqued earlier this year when Meta quietly removed fact-checking labels from Facebook and Instagram content, raising critical questions about how appeals to “truth” might endure within the company’s increasingly narrow enforcement framework. Simultaneously, the Oversight Board—heralded as a novel experiment in corporate self-regulation—continues to face scrutiny for its opacity and slow deliberations. Journalists such as Casey Newton have critiqued its glacial pace, while scholars including Douek (2024) and Wong & Floridi (2022) have offered nuanced assessments of its institutional strengths and weaknesses.