ars technica – Surely this initiative will create meaningful change…”Facebook, which has managed to transcend geographic borders to draw in a population equal to roughly a third of all human life on Earth, has made its final charter for a “Supreme Court” of Facebook public. The company pledges to launch this initiative by November of next year. The new Oversight Board will have five key powers, according to a charter (PDF) Facebook released yesterday. It can “request that Facebook provide information” it needs in a timely manner; it can make interpretations of Facebook standards and guidelines “in light of Facebook’s articulated values”; and it can instruct the company to allow or remove content, to uphold or reverse a decision leading to content being permitted or removed, and to issue “prompt, written explanations of the board’s decisions.” “If someone disagrees with a decision we’ve made, they can appeal to us first, and soon they will be able to further appeal this to the independent board,” company CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a letter (PDF). “As an independent organization, we hope it gives people confidence that their views will be heard and that Facebook doesn’t have the ultimate power over their expression.”

The board will launch with at least 11 members and should eventually get up to 40. The entity will contract its services to Facebook. Participants will serve a maximum of three three-year terms each and will be paid for their time. Their decisions will “be made publicly available and archived in a database of case decisions,” with details subject to certain data or privacy restrictions. Facebook can also contact the board for an “automatic and expedited review” in exceptional circumstances, “when content could result in urgent real world consequences,” such as, for example, if a mass-murderer is livestreaming his crimes…”