Meta Commits Another $150M to Its Oversight Board

Meta has committed another $150 million to the Oversight Board.

The company formerly known as Facebook announced its plans to establish the Oversight Board in 2018; the board officially started operating in 2020. A trust dedicated to financially supporting the board received $130 million in initial funding, so this $150 million more than doubles that.

"Under the terms of the Trust," the Oversight Board says in the funding announcement, "the funds contributed by the company are irrevocable and can only be used to fulfil the Trust's purpose of funding, managing, and overseeing the operation of the Oversight Board."

The board also says it "has received more than one million user appeals from users challenging Meta’s content moderation decisions" since operations began. (Which actually seems a bit low for a board overseeing a company whose social platforms each have billions of users.)

The Oversight Board says it has issued "25 binding case decisions, 118 policy recommendations, and hundreds of publicly reported questions" in response to those requests, with the most high profile action being its decision to uphold Facebook's ban of Donald Trump.

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That was all within four years of the Oversight Board's inception—and just two years after it started to handle requests from users—with $130 million in funding. This additional $150 million should indicate the Oversight Board will continue to operate for at least a few more years.