Platforming the People’s Perspectives: The Role of Public Comment in Meta Oversight Board Decision-making

The Meta Oversight Board has become a hallmark of innovative private governance and platform accountability. This independent, quasi-judicial body created to check Meta’s content policies and practices features some of the world’s most esteemed experts in human rights and governance. Less talked about is its public comment process as a means for engaging those beyond the Board. While there has been much scholarly work on public participation in government processes, there is less understanding of its role within the context of private tech governance and online content regulation. In this thesis, I apply a mixed-methods approach to investigate the role of public comment in Meta Oversight Board decision-making. I undertake 1) a quantitative analysis of public comments submitted to the Meta Oversight Board in conjunction with the outcomes of the Board’s recommendations, and 2) a qualitative analysis of interviews I conducted with internal Board members and staff and civil society stakeholders.

I find that currently, there is no observable relationship between public comment engagement, whether as a whole or from civil society, and the effectiveness of Board recommendations. However, as revealed through my interviews, public comments indeed help the Board build more informed decisions and increase the legitimacy of these decisions. Additionally, internal and external Board stakeholders agree that the barriers to Board engagement, whether via public comment or otherwise, must be lowered to truly foster an inclusive, collaborative engagement process. Finally, I identify key weaknesses in the Board’s transparency efforts when it comes to meaningfully communicating its impact to stakeholders. In sum, my findings suggest a need for the Board to more closely consider how it actualizes its values of transparency, accountability, and accessibility as it pertains to its relationship with external stakeholders, particularly civil society.