Meta’s Oversight Board criticizes ‘Cross Check’ Program

The Oversight Board of Meta Platforms said in a statement, "In October 2021, following disclosures about Meta’s cross-check program in the Wall Street Journal, the Oversight Board accepted a request from the company to review cross-check and make recommendations for how it could be improved. This policy advisory opinion is our response to this request. It analyzes cross-check in light of Meta’s human rights commitments and stated values, raising important questions around how Meta treats its most powerful users. As the Board began to study this policy advisory opinion, Meta shared that, at the time, it was performing about 100 million enforcement attempts on content every day. At this volume, even if Meta were able to make content decisions with 99% accuracy, it would still make one million mistakes a day. In this respect, while a content review system should treat all users fairly, the cross-check program responds to broader challenges in moderating immense volumes of content. According to Meta, making decisions about content at this scale means that it sometimes mistakenly removes content that does not violate its policies. The cross-check program aims to address this by providing additional layers of human review for certain posts initially identified as breaking its rules. When users on Meta’s cross-check lists post such content, it is not immediately removed as it would be for most people, but is left up, pending further human review. Meta refers to this type of cross-check as "Early Response Secondary Review". In late 2021, Meta broadened cross-check to include certain posts flagged for further review based on the content itself, rather than the identity of the person who posted it. Meta refers to this type of cross-check as "General Secondary Review". In our review, we found several shortcomings in Meta’s cross-check program. While Meta told the Board that cross-check aims to advance Meta’s human rights commitments, we found that the program appears more directly structured to satisfy business concerns. The Board understands that Meta is a business, but by providing extra protection to certain users selected largely according to business interests, cross-check allows content which would otherwise be removed quickly to remain up for a longer period, potentially causing harm. We also found that Meta has failed to track data on whether cross-check results in more accurate decisions, and we expressed concern about the lack of transparency around the program. In response, the Board made several recommendations to Meta. Any mistake-prevention system should prioritize expression which is important for human rights, including expression of public importance. As Meta moves towards improving its processes for all users, the company should take steps to mitigate the harm caused by content left up during additional review, and radically increase transparency around its systems." Reference Link