Thread by @MichaelSamway

THREAD. 1/ Thoughts + questions on @Facebook independent appeals proposal facebook.com/notes/mark-zuc…

2/ Check remedy standards for non-judicial process in UN Guiding Principles on Biz and Human Rights. ohchr.org/Documents/Publ…

3/ UNGPs borrow from rule of law concepts. If applied to companies, could FB appeals process meet these four ROL criteria? worldjusticeproject.org

4/ 1. Accountability (transparency, credibility); 2. Just rules (publicized, consistent, = application); 3. Openness (rules created, admin'ed, enforced fairly + efficiently); and 4. Accessible, impartial resolution (justice by competent, indepndnt, resourced, diverse arbiters).

5/ Is @theGNI fit for purpose? It’s multi-stakeholder, has a dozen company members including Facebook, more than 60 from civil society, academia, and socially responsible investors (NB: not governments).

6/ @theGNI foundation: 1. Standards grounded in int’l human rights laws/norms, including UNGPs; 2. Practical guidance for companies on meeting the standards; 3. Forum for continuous learning regarding responsible company decision-making;

7/ 4. Platform for policy advocacy; and 5. Rigorous accountability framework to evaluate companies against standards (this includes remedy, though this requires further development by GNI).

8/ If plan is for an independent process, then @theGNI seems a good place to start discussion of, and possibly place to house, appeals standards and potentially a mechanism across industry.

9/ More on @theGNI 2010 effort to address content moderation challenges: globalnetworkinitiative.org/account-deacti… and more on @theGNI pillars and history: medium.com/global-network…

10/ Lots of conceptual and practical questions to ask and answer, some of which Mark Zuckerberg asks in his blog post. NB: I’ve shared thoughts on this w/ FB in the past.

11/ Superb analysis and questions here by @EvelynDouek
lawfareblog.com/facebooks-new-…. More excellent thoughts and questions here by @TarletonG slate.com/technology/201…. Good threads too by @Davidakaye, @daphnehk, @KevinBankston, and @article19UN re councils and content moderation.

12/ Additional list of some of the questions I have re membership, resources, mechanics, etc. Is it diverse and representative? Numbers? How appointed and for how long? How removed? Staggered terms? Recusal policy for conflicts? How, when, where does body convene?

13/ Should council choose its own cases like granting cert? How to avoid politicization of membership, cases selected, and decisions?

14/ Decisions in personal or professional organizational capacity? Council members paid? If so, by whom? How to define independence? Support staff from FB? Access to clerks for legal or other expertise?

15/ Regional or issue-area circuits and supreme council? How many cases? Written opinions? Dissents? Stare decisis / precedent based? Developed jurisprudence? Emergency appeals? Amicus filings allowed?

16/ How to balance transparency w/ confidentiality? Power to gather evidence? Due process standards for review? What does council review? Only content take-down questions? Other decisions?

17/ Does council have a role in (re)writing community guidelines or is it only interpretive? Approach consistent w/ fiduciary responsibility to shareholders? Applicability across industry?

18/ Content policies become the constitution on which council decisions are based. See good piece by @Klonic and @thomaskadri
nytimes.com/2018/11/17/opi…

19/ Are FB’s community guidelines consistent with int’l human rights standards, including ICCPR Article 19? Stronger if so. See forthcoming law review article discussing int'l human rights law and Twitter's community standards papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…

20/ How about where national law or practice is arguably inconsistent with int’l human rights standards? Or where regional legal instruments are arguably inconsistent with int’l human rights law? And pressure on companies to sign voluntary codes of conduct regarding speech.

21/ See hate speech code signed by ICT companies under EU pressure; If there's a reasonable argument EU or other legal instruments themselves are inconsistent w/ int’l human rights law, what then? See @OULawIBHR's Prof. Evelyn Aswad paper papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…

END 22/ Is there an alternative to an independent council that can achieve the same goals? Which begs the question: What are the goals? Lots of questions but lots of potential too.