San Francisco (AFP)

A Yemeni Nobel Peace Prize laureate, a former Danish Prime Minister, Facebook has chosen personalities from a wide range of countries, languages ​​and backgrounds to compose her council of wise men who will decide content in the future.

It is "the beginning of a fundamental change in the way some of the toughest Facebook content decisions will be made," said Facebook public policy director Brent Harris.

The project of a sort of "Supreme Court", having the final say on whether or not to maintain controversial content on the Facebook and Instagram networks, was unveiled in late January.

For the time being, it will be made up of 20 members with equal parity between men and women.

Their number will be increased to 40 "over time," said the social network on Wednesday, stressing that they "had significant expertise in several key areas" including freedom of expression, digital rights, religious freedom, moderation of content, digital copyrights or online security, internet censorship and transparency.

On the women's side, it includes the 2011 Yemeni Nobel Peace Prize winner Kolkata Abdel-Salam Karman, a journalist, activist and politician committed to the defense of women's rights, as well as former Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt and former CEO. from the NGO Save the Children.

Among the men, Andras Sajo, former Hungarian judge and vice-president of the European Court of Human Rights and Alan Rusbridger, former British editor-in-chief of the British daily newspaper The Guardian who gave the group global visibility after the revelations of 'Edward Snowden.

The journalist made the decision in August 2013 to destroy the hard drives containing the information leaked to the newspaper by the whistleblower, rather than comply with a request from the British government to return the data.

In recent years, Facebook has come under fire from many critics, accusing it of not acting aggressively to suppress hate messages. In particular, he had been slow to respond to propaganda on his website by the Burmese army against the Rohingya minority.

- Definitive -

Attacked in court, Facebook had to resolve to act by creating this council of wise men.

"The board will make final and binding decisions on whether specific content should be allowed or removed from Facebook and Instagram," said Facebook.

Members speak the 10 most widely spoken languages ​​in the world.

The implementation of this supervisory board comes shortly after an American judge confirmed the fine of $ 5 billion imposed last summer by the American consumer protection agency, the FTC, on Facebook for not have been able to protect the personal data of its users.

Facebook is committed to publicizing all decisions made by its supervisory board "on its website, while protecting the identity and privacy of those involved".

The board will also publish an annual public report to assess its work and how Facebook is meeting its commitments.

At the end of 2018 when the project of a council of wise men had been mentioned, the CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, had stressed that it would take into account cultural specificities and regional sensitivities when making decisions.

A naked breast that can shock in a conservative society will not have the same effect in a more liberated environment.

© 2020 AFP