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Facebook Oversight Board Member Gives a Chilling Insight to How They View Free Speech

Julio Rosas
Julio Rosas  |  July 15, 2021 3:35 PM

Helle Thorning Schmidt, a member of Facebook’s Oversight Board, said during a virtual Politico Europe forum that free speech is not an absolute human right because it needs to be balanced with other human rights, which translates into the board's approach to content moderation on Facebook.

"How do you moderate content and how do you find that balance between human rights and free speech, which is a human right, but also other human rights because free speech is not an absolute human right. It has to be balanced with other human rights and that is what the Oversight is there to do," the former prime minister of Denmark.

"We have seen content moderation...from a select few in Silicon Valley and ultimately Mark Zuckerberg, who has been moderating content. Now we have the Oversight Board, which is a completely new invention to do this work. And, of course, I want to say that I think this is a very positive new way to do it," Schmidt added.

Schmidt's comments about free speech were met with harsh criticisms from Americans, given the First Amendment is a top priority for many: