Activist Maina Kiai Joins Ksh13 Billion Facebook Oversight Board

A photo of a team of Journalists at Mitihani House During Releasing of KCPE Results on Monday November 18, 2019.
A team of Journalists at Mitihani House during the release of KCPE Results on Monday, November 18, 2019.
Simon Kiragu
Kenyans.co.ke

Famous human rights activist and journalist Maina Kiai, was on Wednesday, May 6, appointed to a newly constructed global board tasked with monitoring content on Facebook and Instagram.

Kiai was selected as part of an elite team of 20 individuals from around the world who are quite literally the only people who can overrule Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, in regards to content moderation.

"Pleased to announce I'm joining the Oversight Board, a new body to monitor content moderation for Facebook & Instagram. 

"It's an important step for compliance with business & HR norms, but it doesn't supplant external accountability mechanisms," reads a statement sent out by Kiai following his latest appointment.

Kenyan Human rights activist, journalist and lawyer Maina Kiai.
Kenyan Human rights activist, journalist and lawyer Maina Kiai.
File

He will work alongside a Pulitzer prize-winning newspaper editor, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, a former Denmark Prime Minister, to name but a few of the elite board members.

This will be the first time that Facebook will have no hand or powers to overrule decisions regarding any of its content.

The special board will take final and binding decisions on whether specific content should be allowed or removed from Facebook and Instagram.

"Our financial independence is also guaranteed by the establishment of a $130 million (Ksh13 billion) trust fund that is completely independent of Facebook, which will fund our operations and cannot be revoked. All of this is designed to protect our independent judgment and enable us to make decisions free from influence or interference," reads an excerpt from the oversight board's newly launched website.

Zuckerberg is believed to have kickstarted the move to have an impartial oversight board as far back as 2018, to help improve on Facebook's credibility in regards to judging what content should be allowed on the site.

Kiai, a lawyer by profession formerly served as the United Nations special rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association. Since 2018, he has headed Human Rights Watch Alliances and Partnership program.

He formerly wrote a regular column for the Daily Nation but resigned in 2018, and now writes for The Standard.

Tanzanian opposition MP Tundu Lissu (Left) and Kenyan Human rights activist Maina Kiai pose for a photo. September 19, 2019.
Tanzanian opposition MP Tundu Lissu (Left) and Kenyan Human rights activist Maina Kiai pose for a photo. September 19, 2019.
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