Syed Imran Haider 
Meta lately announced its penalty system reforms based on the Oversight Board recommendations. The name ‘Facebook Jail’ has been overhauled as users have bestowed on the social media’s system to determine policy violations.
The Oversight Board comprises academics, lawyers, civic leaders, and independent experts who weigh in on appeals for Meta’s decision. Surprisingly, the Board had already voiced about the company’s penalty system, known as disproportionate and opaque. Further transparency with users over Facebook’s decisions was also a significant concern raised by the Board. The organizing body also highlighted the need for allowing users to clarify the context of violating posts if they want to appeal any of Meta’s decisions.
Earlier this week, Meta said the company plans to reform its system by focusing less on penalties for end users, such as limiting their ability to post any content. Instead, it will focus more on clarifying the reasons behind its decision regarding content removal.
Meta believes such decisions should be a fairer and more effective medium to moderate content on its platform. According to the new reforms or penalty systems, Meta shall not enforce strict penalties, including 1-month timeouts from posting content till the seventh violation.
Changes in Meta’s Penalty Reforms
Monika Bickert, the vice president of Content Policy at Meta, says the company has made this change because it knows it does not always get it right. The new policy will result in faster and more effective actions for users who continuously violate Meta’s penalty policies.
Meta says while the company has not changed its decision-making process regarding content removals, it aims to explain relevant policies to users to improve transparency in its decisions when violations arise. Meta says most users do not understand what they do wrong and feel themselves in Facebook jail. Some also do not identify why they suddenly cannot post because Meta penalizes them for violations. Still, social media dote out lengthy and strict penalties for lower-level breaches, which often do not carry ill intentions.
Violation Examples
The announcement also contained many examples of the types of posts that led to a penalty under the Facebook Jail sentence in the past. These include joking with a friend that you are on your way to kidnap them. Or you post someone’s contact detail, which is a policy violation. In these scenarios, Facebook would give a disproportionate response.
Meta acknowledges these as harm to the system and bans people from posting, limiting their ability to express themselves and connect with their local groups. At times users getting penalties because of violations cannot run their business on the social media platform while in Facebook Jail.
Timeouts given as a penalty can vary in length. The previous system used to immediately ban users from posting content for 30 days. Meta aiming to address it decided to increase transparency around breaches while still putting penalties for repeated violations. The company believes these actions would effectively work to manage problems with bad actors.
