Facebook’s ‘ideologically’ diverse content board isn't

FPI / August 31, 2020

The formation of an independent oversight board with authority to allow or remove content from Facebook and Instagram was recently announced by Facebook.

While the top officials on the board touted its ideological diversity, an investigation by journalist Sharyl Attkisson found 18 of the 20 members of the oversight board received funding from George Soros's Open Society Foundations.

"Open Society’s reach is so vast that simply receiving support from the institution is not a proxy for political leanings – one member has received support from Soros and the Charles Koch Foundation. But the fact that 90 percent of the board’s members have ties to that progressive group raises questions in an environment where conservatives complain about big-tech bias and Internet censorship," Attkisson wrote for RealClearInvestigations.

Among the oversight board's members are:

• Afia Asantewaa Asare-Kyei: A program manager at Soros’ Open Society Foundations in West Africa.

• Catalina Botero-Marino (co-chair): Dean of a Colombian law school that received $1.3 million over two years from Soros’ Open Society Foundations. Serves on an expert panel of Inter-American Dialogue, funded in part by Soros’ Open Society Foundations. Also serves as an expert for Columbia University’s Global Freedom of Expression Project, funded in part by Open Society Foundations. Served as a board member of Article 19, which received $1.7 million from Open Society Foundations over two years.

• Nighat Dad: Founder and executive director of the Digital Rights Foundation, which receives money from Soros’ Open Society Foundations, and is a project of Artists at Risk Connection, a project of Pen America, which is sponsored in part by Soros’ Open Society Foundations. Served on the board of the Soros-funded Dangerous Speech Project. Adviser on Amnesty International’s Technology and Human Rights Counsel, funded in part by Soros’ Open Society Foundations.

• Jamal Greene (co-chair): Columbia University law school professor. (The Soros family and Foundations are well known funders of and partners with Columbia.) Recently served as aide to California Sen. Kamala Harris, who counts Soros among her donors. His Twitter account shows that he has sided firmly against President Donald Trump.

• Pamela Karlan: Stanford University Law professor. Member of the Soros founded and funded American Constitution Society, which takes a “progressive” view of the U.S. Constitution. Supported Trump impeachment and has contributed to Democratic candidates, including Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren.

• Andas Sajo: Professor. One of the founders of Soros’ Central European University. Formerly on board of Soros’ Open Society Justice Initiative in New York. Former judge of European Court of Human Rights, criticized for its alleged conflicts of interests and Soros ties. (An investigation found that nearly all the judges on the court received funding from Soros’ Open Society Foundations.)

• Helle Thorning-Schmidt (co-chair): Denmark’s socialist former prime minister who advocates “rethinking” democracy. On board of the Open Society Foundations-funded European Council of Foreign Relations. Trustee at the Open Society Foundations-funded International Crisis Group where George and Alexander Soros sit on the board. Advisory board member of Open Society Foundations-funded Atlantic Council. Also sits on the Atlantic Council’s International Advisory Board, which received approximately $325,000 from the Open Society Foundations-funded Center for Global Development.

Free Press International