Facebook Parent Meta to change cross-check functionality for VIP posts

Meta said on Friday it would change the company’s criticized special treatment of posts by celebrities, politicians and other mainstream Instagram or Facebook users, taking steps to prevent commercial interests from influencing decisions. .

The tech giant has promised to implement all or part of most of the 32 changes to its ‘cross-check’ program recommended by an independent review board it funds as a kind of superior tribunal for decisions. content or policy.

“This will result in substantial changes to how we operate this system,” Meta President of Global Affairs Nick Clegg said in a blog post.

“These actions will improve this system to make it more efficient, accountable and fair.”

Meta, however, declined to publicly state which accounts receive preferential treatment when it comes to content filtering decisions, nor will it create a formal and open process to enter the program.

Tagging users in the counter-verification program could target them for abuse, Meta explained.

The changes came in response to the Oversight Committee in December calling on Meta to overhaul the cross-checking system, saying the program appeared to put commercial interests ahead of human rights when it gave special treatment to posts that violated human rights. rules of certain users.

“We found that the program seems more directly structured to address business concerns,” the panel said in a report at the time.

“By providing additional protection to selected users largely based on commercial interests, cross-checking allows content that would otherwise be deleted quickly to remain active longer, potentially causing harm.”

Meta told the board that the program aims to prevent content-removal errors by providing an extra layer of human review for high-profile user posts that initially appear to violate the rules, according to the report.

“We will continue to ensure that our content moderation decisions are made as consistently and accurately as possible, without bias or outside pressure,” Meta said in its response to the oversight board.

“While we recognize that business considerations will always be inherent in the overall direction of our business, we will continue to refine safeguards and processes to avoid bias and error across all of our review pathways and review structures. decision making.”