Donald Trump reportedly called Mark Zuckerberg while he was president to oppose Facebook’s Supervisory Board.
Shortly after Facebook announced the members of its Supervisory Board, an independent panel that would have the power to nullify the social media giant in the interest of human rights, Trump called Zuckerberg to protest the addition of law professor Pamela Karlan from Stanford who testified in his 2019 impeachment, according to a report for The New Yorker by Kate Klonick.
Facebook allowed Klonick to spend eighteen months after the creation of the Oversight Board. A person familiar with the process said that Zuckerberg listened to the then president’s complaints, but did not change the composition of the board, according to Klonick’s report.
“He used Pam as an example of how deeply the board was offensive to him,” a source told her.
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Zuckerberg announced his plan to create the Oversight Board in 2018 to govern content moderation decisions. The creation of the council also came after a data collection scandal involving Trump-linked Cambridge Analytica. The independent board can revise Zuckerberg’s head and Facebook’s existing policies to overturn the social media giant’s decision.
The council was launched in 2020 and the inaugural members included a Nobel winner, a former prime minister and human rights experts from around the world.
The Supervisory Board has two months to decide whether Trump should be reinstated on Facebook after the company suspended the former president’s account after the January 6 uprising on the United States Capitol. Twitter announced that Trump is permanently barred from entering the platform after his role in inciting violence.
The Supervisory Board will review the arguments for or against its removal, including a statement by Trump himself.
The New Yorker reported that the board originally included 20 members who were paid “six-figure salaries for working about fifteen hours a week”. Facebook selected judges through a public portal that received thousands of nominations.
The council issued its first decision in five cases earlier this year. Up to 200,000 posts become eligible for appeal every day, according to The New Yorker.
Contrary to Supreme Court decisions, the council’s justifications for overturning Facebook laws do not become political going forward. Some experts in internet policy and technology are opposed to the council because Facebook can outsource criticism in controversial cases while remaining as the creator of the platform’s rules, reported Tyler Sonnemaker of Insider.
Facebook did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment or to confirm The New Yorker’s report.