Meta cuts list of users exempt from content moderation in half, Oversight Board says 

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, reduced its list of high-profile users exempt from content moderation rules since receiving recommendations from the Meta Oversight Board, the board said Thursday. 

Meta’s cross-check program, first revealed by The Wall Street Journal in October 2021, provides an extra layer of review for some high-profile users before enforcement. The reporting on Meta’s content moderation for high-profile users also revealed a so-called whitelist of users exempt from enforcement for certain policies.

Since December 2022, when the Oversight Board recommended updates to the program, Meta has cut the number of users on the whitelist by more than half, according to the Oversight Board’s transparency report released Thursday. 

The board recommended Meta establish clear criteria around the practices. 

Meta’s cross-check program was revealed as part of a Wall Street Journal report that included disclosures from Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen. The program uses different content moderation measures for certain high-profile users, such as politicians or celebrities. 

Meta said in March it would update its program in response to the board’s nonbinding policy recommendations. 

In establishing the criteria for the program, the overall size of the list has decreased by 55 percent, according to the oversight board’s transparency report released Thursday. 

In addition to decreasing the size of the list, Meta has cleared the backlog of content to review from the cross-check program, another one of the board’s recommendations. The resolution time to review and take enforcement action on a post has decreased by 96 percent for 90 percent of the jobs created in the first half of 2023 compared with the second half of 2022, according to the board’s report. 

The Meta Oversight Board is made up of a panel of global academics, experts and civic leaders. It is run independently from Meta and funded by an independent trust provided by the tech company. 

While the board’s recommendations on specific pieces of content are binding, the policy recommendations are not.

Updated at 1:37 p.m.