Back in April 2021, Facebook (now Meta) asked its independent Oversight Board to weigh in on the sharing of users’ private home information on Facebook and Instagram.
The Oversight Board has since released its view on the matter. It noted, among other things, that Facebook should stop making exceptions for posts that share photos of home addresses or private residences.
Facebook’s current privacy violation policy leaves some leeway for posts that share someone’s private information, provided those details have been previously released to the public “through news reports, court documents, press releases, or other sources.
Likewise, Meta’s content moderators were told that if someone’s private information was shared by five or more news organizations, then it should be considered public information.
An example provided by the oversight board is that if someone’s address meets Facebook’s “public information” criteria, then a photo that identifies that person by their address would be considered permissible.
It’s worth noting that, for now, these are recommendations for Meta and Facebook, not confirmed changes. While it is possible that we will see some (or all) of these recommendations implemented at some point in the future, this is not guaranteed.
Removing the exception for “publicly available” private information was the oversight committee’s main recommendation, though he also proposed other changes.
The committee argues that Facebook should have rules for its content moderators to ensure they know when to report content that may violate the platform’s community standards, but which may also qualify for the “newsworthy” exception to remain in line with the “newsworthiness” Consistency of exceptions.
In addition, it recommends giving users a quick (and effective) way to report posts that share their private information and ask for it to be removed — as well as suggesting Facebook more clearly explain its community standards and privacy violation policies.
The Oversight Board has also proposed other exceptions for sharing private information. Assuming these exceptions are implemented, users will be allowed to share photos of private homes if the private home is the focus of a story, if it is the public residence of a political figure, as a means of protest organizing, or if it is the user’s own private house, then the user will be allowed to share photos of the private house.
Among other things, the oversight board recommended that Facebook strengthen its enforcement policies to allow users to add context to their claims and create a contact channel specifically for victims of leaks that is accessible to everyone — whether they use the platform or not itself.