Surprise, surprise: you're not allowed to make a "board" and call it "Real Facebook Oversight Board" without Facebook's permission.
In the battle between Facebook and journalists, I am increasingly on Facebook's side. The breathlessness of these articles is starting to resemble parody.
The name's kinda stupid, but maybe they were aiming for the Streissand Effect. If they were competent, they would've unveiled the replacement website (already online with the same content, just with the name replaced) within 5 minutes...
Call it "zuckwatch.org" or "werewatchingyouzuck.org" or something...
Yes they are trying to make FB sound like a big bully, but it’s really reaching. Google wouldn’t want admin@realgoogleoversightboard.com sending out emails.
No sympathy here. They can buy a new domain, they weren’t “removed from the internet”
My understanding of these journalists is theyre trying to pressure facebook to censor people on FB's platform, usually political opponents. It's wrong that anyone should have their domain ripped like that because a large company willed it, but there is no self awareness they are being given the same treatment they want to impose on others.
And as far as censorship goes, its completely non obvious that Facebook's Oversight Board is completely different than the Real Facebook Oversight Board. As chair of Real Vice Oversight Board, they're ethically in the wrong even if they shouldn't be censored.
They should've called it an Unofficial Facebook Oversight Board. Ultimately it was their own service provider (ISP SupportNation) who made the judgment call to disconnect a customer — not FB.
Key quote:
“The most extraordinary thing about this whole affair is how it's exposed the total Trumpification of Facebook's corporate comms,” Cadwalladr told VICE News. “There is a brazen shamelessness at work here. It's not just that a company that has used 'free speech' as a protective cloak would go after our ISP and drive us off the internet but that its official spokesman responds to such criticism by attacking and trolling journalists.”
In the battle between Facebook and journalists, I am increasingly on Facebook's side. The breathlessness of these articles is starting to resemble parody.