Governments must move to regulate

The long-awaited opinion last week on Facebook’s vague, “indefinite” banning of former US president Donald Trump showcased the many perplexing frustrations inherent in Facebook’s quasi-judicial Oversight Board – and in Facebook.

In this important but exasperating opinion, the board upheld Facebook’s decision to remove Trump, but at the same time, the board declined Facebook’s request that it also give “observations or recommendations” on how the company should frame policies for global leaders that use the site. Instead, the board firmly pushed back. It told the company to formulate transparent and consistent policies around allowable speech, suspensions and bans, and decide Trump’s Facebook future within six months.

Even if the board is funded through an independent trust, it nonetheless is Facebook appointed. Its decisions lack legal power, and it cannot prevent Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg from doing whatever he wants.

It is deeply worrying that governments remain reluctant to regulate, leaving private social media platforms to weigh the limits of free speech in online spaces that are effectively public and global. How to clarify those rights, constrain the daunting private power of social media platforms and enforce their accountability remains a defining, existential challenge for democracy.

Views from around the world. These opinions are not necessarily shared by Stuff newspapers.