The former federal judge leading Facebook’s new content review board challenged the growing number of conservative critics to wait before ripping his group to shreds.
Facebook oversight board co-chairman Michael McConnell said his decision to lead the group could “ruin my life,” but he has hope the experiment will succeed. The group will have authority over reviewing appeals of content restricted on Facebook and Instagram.
Since the oversight board announced its first 20 members, conservatives have branded Facebook’s judicial body as impartial, beholden to liberal special interests, and poised to silence President Trump’s supporters.
A New York Post editorial said Mr. McConnell is “potentially compromised” because he works with a law firm that “represents much of the Silicon Valley corporate elite.” Mr. McConnell said he has never represented Facebook and the firm he’s affiliated with, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, does not represent Facebook, either.
“As I sometimes tell my wife, it could ruin my life. I hope that it doesn’t,” Mr. McConnell told The Washington Times. “As to attacks, well, I’ve been around the track a few times. I’ve been attacked before and it really doesn’t bother me particularly.”
Some of the board’s most vocal critics have joined a Free Speech Alliance of 60 conservative organizations led by Media Research Center founder L. Brent Bozell III with high-profile activists such as Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe, Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser and Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights President Bill Donohue.
The alliance wrote a letter last week accusing Facebook’s oversight board of harboring members with an overwhelmingly anti-Trump bias and connections to liberal donor George Soros. Before Facebook’s oversight board adds its next 20 members, the alliance said the group should prioritize political conservatives to develop a balanced perspective, or disband.
“We’d love to see the Oversight Board succeed in aiding free speech and not silencing it,” said Dan Gainor, the Media Research Center’s vice president for business and culture. “However, it’s scary that a board overwhelmingly made up of liberal, international members is deciding on American content.”
Mr. McConnell said he hopes the alliance will look back at the board’s work in two or three years and view it better than they anticipated, but he said he thought board members’ commitment to freedom of expression mattered more than their personal politics.
“For example, I think that a genuine civil libertarian who does not much like Mr. Trump is very likely to be a more effective spokesman for civil liberties for Mr. Trump than somebody who’s just in the can for him,” Mr. McConnell said. “That is, what matters here is fair-mindedness, neutrality and commitment to freedom of expression, not where people are coming from politically.”
Mr. McConnell said he does not know when the next 20 members will join the board, and Facebook is working with Heidrick & Struggles, a global executive search firm, to find good candidates for the remaining positions.
The timeline Mr. McConnell has in mind does not match the oversight board’s plans published on its website. While the website said the board would begin reviewing cases about restricted content this year, Mr. McConnell said he views the endeavor as a long-term project.
“Members of the board called President Donald Trump ’odious’ and the ’crown jewel of the far right,’ McConnell can say we should wait and see, but I am very concerned right now,” Mr. O’Keefe said.
Mr. Trump’s reelection campaign has warned supporters that the oversight board’s estimated 90-day review process could censor pro-Trump political messages in the final days before the November election. Mr. McConnell said he would not guarantee that the board begins work this year and said he thought it was “unfortunate” that it was getting started amid the backdrop of electoral politics.
Mr. McConnell emphasized patience and said he hoped Facebook users do not have the false impression that the oversight board will be able to review every appeal. Facebook has three facilities filled with 10,000 workers apiece aimed at reviewing content, according to Mr. McConnell.
Facebook’s oversight board will soon form a selection committee charged with examining which cases will get hearings. Mr. McConnell said he was not sure whether users would learn whether their appeal was rejected, but those who get hearings will receive explanations for the board’s decisions.
• Ryan Lovelace can be reached at rlovelace@washingtontimes.com.
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