Donald Trump’s supporters say it is a disgrace that Facebook’s oversight board has just upheld the decision to ban the former US president from the social network. Many of his opponents say it is a fitting punishment for inciting post-election violence in Washington.
But the broader and more important issue is whether a Facebook-designed, appointed and funded oversight board is the appropriate body to be making such judgments. Why has it been left to a private company to create a faux public institution, Facebook’s “supreme court”, to draw the boundaries of free expression?
George Lakoff, the cognitive scientist, famously explained how framing an issue in a particular way can shape political or societal outcomes. “Framing defines the problem and limits what you can talk about,” he said. By setting up its own oversight board, Facebook has artfully framed the issue of free expression as one that implicitly accepts the company’s operating practices and business model and focuses on outcomes, not inputs. But, as the oversight board itself argued this week, that does not mean Facebook can avoid its responsibilities.