Donald Trump allegedly called Mark Zuckerberg while he was president to oppose Facebook’s supervisory board.
Shortly after Facebook announced the members of its supervisory board, an independent panel that would have the power to dominate the social media giant in the interest of human rights, Trump called Zuckerberg to protest the addition of Pamela Karlan, ‘ a Stanford Law professor who testified at his 2019 indictment, according to a report for The New Yorker by Kate Klonick.
Facebook allowed Klonick to spend eighteen months after the creation of the supervisory board. A person familiar with the process said Zuckerberg listened to the then president’s complaints, but according to Klonick’s report did not change the composition of the board.
“He used Pam as an example of how the board was this offensive thing to him,” a source told her.
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Zuckerberg has announced its plan to draft the supervisory board in 2018 to rule on content moderation decisions. The creation of the board also follows a data harvest scandal involving Cambridge Analytica, Trump-linked. The independent board could consider Zuckerberg’s headline and Facebook’s existing policy to dominate the social media giant’s decision.
The board was launched in 2020 and among the first members was a Nobel Prize winner, a former prime minister and human rights activists from around the world.
The supervisory board has two months to decide whether to reinstate Trump on Facebook after the company suspended the former president’s account following the January 6 uprising at the US Capitol. Twitter announced that Trump is permanently banning the platform after his role that incited the violence.
The supervisory board will review arguments for or against his removal, including a statement from Trump himself.
According to the New Yorker, the board originally included 20 members who “paid six salaries to put in about fifteen hours a week.” Facebook selected judges through a public portal that received thousands of nominations.
The board delivered its first ruling on five cases earlier this year. As many as 200,000 jobs are eligible for appeal each day, according to The New Yorker.
Unlike rulings in the Supreme Court, the justification of the board for overturning Facebook laws does not become policy. Some Internet and technology policy experts are opposed to challenging the board because Facebook could outsource criticism in controversial cases while remaining the platform’s government maker, reports Tyler Sonnemaker of Insider.
Facebook did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment or to confirm The New Yorker’s report.