Meta's Cross-Check programme shows unequal treatment of some Facebook and Instagram users

According to a report issued by the Meta oversight board on Tuesday, Meta's Cross-Check programme led to unequal treatment for users. Meta has treated some Facebook and Instagram users unequally and given some of them greater protection than others.

Mentioning Meta's cross-check programme, which was designed to improve moderation, the company's Oversight Board said it found several shortcomings. To address this "unequal treatment" issue of content that does not violate policies mistakenly being removed, cross-check program aimed to provide "additional layers of human review," as per Meta.  However, the Oversight Board commented that "by providing extra protection to certain users selected largely according to business interests, Meta's programme to improve moderation allows content which would otherwise be removed quickly to remain up for a longer period."  And it could cause harm to someone, Meta oversight board added.

The board said Meta is still not able to justify accurately track data on whether Cross-Check Programme resulted in more accurate decisions and expressed concern about the lack of transparency around the program. Nick Clegg, Meta's VP of global affairs, responded to the report in a statement posted to Meta's website. According to Nick Clegg's statement "We built the cross-check system to prevent potential over-enforcement (when we take action on content or accounts that don't actually violate our policies) and to double-check cases where there could be a higher risk for a mistake or when the potential impact of a mistake is especially severe." The further said that the company had already come up with some changes in line with the board's recommendations but added that to "fully address the number of recommendations, we've agreed with the board to review and respond within 90 days." Meta has not provided any further comment beyond Clegg's statement.