Facebook's oversight board announced its decision on whether to uphold former U.S. President Donald Trump's suspension from the platform.

Here are some key facts about how the board works:

WHAT DOES THE OVERSIGHT BOARD REVIEW?

The board, which some have dubbed Facebook Inc's "Supreme Court," can overturn the company's decisions on whether some individual pieces of content should be displayed on Facebook or its photo-sharing platform Instagram. It can also recommend changes to Facebook's content policy, based on a case decision or at the company's request, but these are not binding.

The board, which only makes rulings on a small slice of Facebook's content decisions, has said it aims to pick cases with wider relevance. It said it has received more than 300,000 cases since it opened its doors in October 2020.

Cases so far have involved issues such as hate speech, violence and nudity. Facebook has said the board's remit will in future include ads, groups, pages, profiles and events, but has not given a time frame.

It does not deal with Instagram direct messages, Facebook's messaging platforms WhatsApp and Messenger, its dating service, or its Oculus virtual reality products.


HOW DOES THE BOARD WORK?

The board, which is supported by a staff, decides which cases it reviews. Cases can be referred either by a user who have exhausted Facebook's appeals process or by Facebook itself for "significant and difficult" cases.

Each case is reviewed by a five-member panel, with at least one from the same geographic region as the case originated. The panel can ask for subject-matter experts to help it make its decision, which then must be finalized by the whole board by majority vote.

The board's case decision - which is binding unless it could violate the law - must typically be made and implemented within 90 days, though Facebook can ask for a 30-day expedited review for exceptional cases, including those with "urgent real-world consequences."

Users will be notified of the board's ruling on their case and the board will publicly publish the decision. When the board gives policy recommendations, Facebook has to publish a response within 30 days.


WHO IS ON THE OVERSIGHT BOARD?

The board currently consists of 20 people but will eventually have about 40 members.

Facebook chose the four co-chairs - former federal judge Michael McConnell and constitutional law expert Jamal Greene from the United States, Colombian attorney Catalina Botero-Marino and former Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt - who selected 16 other members jointly with Facebook.

Some picks resulted from the global consultations conducted by Facebook to obtain feedback on the oversight board.

The members, who are part-time, also include civil rights advocates, academics, journalists, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and a former judge of the European Court of Human Rights.

The members are paid by a trust that Facebook has created and will serve three-year terms for a maximum of nine years.

The trustees can remove a member before the end of their term for violating the board's code of conduct, but not for content decisions.


Here is a list of the board members:

CO-CHAIRS

CATALINA BOTERO-MARINO

Botero-Marino is a Colombian attorney who was the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States from 2008 to 2014. She is now Dean of the Universidad de los Andes Faculty of Law.

JAMAL GREENE

Greene is a Columbia Law professor whose scholarship focuses on constitutional rights adjudication and the structure of legal and constitutional argument. He was a law clerk for former U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens.

MICHAEL MCCONNELL

McConnell, now a constitutional law professor at Stanford Law, was a U.S. federal circuit judge. Appointed by Republican President George W. Bush, he was viewed as a possible U.S. Supreme Court nominee. He is an expert on religious freedom and a Supreme Court advocate who has represented clients in First Amendment cases.

HELLE THORNING-SCHMIDT

Thorning-Schmidt was the first woman prime minister of Denmark. The Social Democrat, who led a coalition government from 2011-2015, then served as the chief executive of charity Save the Children International.

OTHER MEMBERS

AFIA ASANTEWAA ASARE-KYEI

A dual Ghanaian and South African citizen, Asare-Kyei is a human rights advocate who works on women’s rights, media freedom, and access to information issues across Africa at the Open Society Initiative for West Africa.

EVELYN ASWAD

Aswad, now a University of Oklahoma College of Law professor, formerly served as a senior U.S. State Department lawyer. She specializes in the application of international human rights standards to content moderation issues.

ENDY BAYUNI

Bayuni is an Indonesian journalist who twice served as the editor-in-chief of the Jakarta Post and is involved with media advocacy organizations across the region.

KATHERINE CHEN

A former national communications regulator in Taiwan, Chen is currently a professor in public relations and statistics at Taiwan's National Chengchi University. Her research focuses on social media, mobile news, and privacy.

NIGHAT DAD

Dad is a Pakistani lawyer and internet activist who runs the Digital Rights Foundation, a nonprofit organization focused on cyber harassment, data protection and free speech online in Pakistan and South Asia.

SUZANNE NOSSEL

Nossel is chief executive officer at freedom of expression non-profit PEN America. She was previously chief operating officer of Human Rights Watch, executive director of Amnesty International USA, and held roles in the administrations of U.S. Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.

She replaces Stanford law professor Pamela Karlan, who recently stepped away from the board and joined the U.S. Department of Justice.

TAWAKKOL KARMAN

The Yemeni human rights activist and journalist became the first Arab woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize in 2011 in recognition of her non-violent push for change during the Arab Spring.

MAINA KIAI

Kiai is a Kenyan lawyer and human rights activist who is director of Human Rights Watch's Global Alliances and Partnerships Program and who served as the United Nations special rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association from 2011 to 2017.

SUDHIR KRISHNASWAMY

Krishnawamy, the vice chancellor of the National Law School of India University, is an expert on India's constitutional law and a civil society activist.

RONALDO LEMOS

Lemos is a Brazilian academic and lawyer who co-created a national internet rights law in Brazil and co-founded a nonprofit focused on technology and policy issues. He teaches law at the Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro.

JULIE OWONO

Owono is a lawyer and the executive director of Internet Sans Frontieres, a digital rights organization based in France. She campaigns against internet censorship in Africa and around the world.

EMI PALMOR

Palmor is a former director general of the Israeli Ministry of Justice, who led initiatives to address racial discrimination and advance access to justice via digital services and platforms.

ALAN RUSBRIDGER

Rusbridger is a British journalist who was the editor-in-chief of the Guardian newspaper. He is now the principal of Lady Margaret Hall, a college of Oxford University.

ANDRAS SAJO

A Hungarian legal academic and former judge at the European Court of Human Rights, Sajo is an expert in comparative constitutionalism and was involved in the drafting of the Ukrainian, Georgian and South African constitutions.

JOHN SAMPLES

Samples is a vice president at the Cato Institute, a U.S. libertarian think tank. He advocates against restrictions on online expression and writes on social media and speech regulation.

NICOLAS SUZOR

Suzor is an associate law professor at Queensland University of Technology in Australia who studies the governance of social networks and the regulation of automated systems.