Meta’s Oversight Board Reflects on Five Years of Tough Calls

Meta’s independent Oversight Board has released a new report to mark its fifth anniversary, offering a detailed look at the cases it has helped Meta and its users navigate, as well as the role it’s played in shaping moderation policies through objective analysis rather than internal directives. Created as a bold experiment, the Oversight Board was meant to demonstrate how external review could influence policy decisions by shifting authority away from a small circle of Meta executives. The idea was to bring broader expertise and deeper context into decisions that affect speech and behavior across the platform. And the model has delivered, driving meaningful changes in Meta’s approach to policy and enforcement. According to the report: “Five years on, the Board has made important strides for Meta’s global users, bringing transparency, reasoning and a human rights perspective to decisions that were long made behind closed doors, and with little or no public-facing rationale. The model we have built brings experts from around the globe to independently review sensitive content decisions on Meta platforms with input from the public and civil society. Our Board Members are politically, ideologically, geographically, culturally and professionally diverse. This means we can take better account of the varied contexts affecting speech and other human rights in different parts of the world.” As highlighted in the report, Meta has enacted roughly 75% of the more than 300 recommendations issued by the Oversight Board — a strong indication of its value in providing oversight, structure, and accountability. Still, skeptics question how truly independent a Meta-funded, Meta-appointed body can be. Yet the board appears to have operated with considerable autonomy, even while relying on the company for financial support. From the outset, however, the Oversight Board was intended as a test case. In the wake of heated moderation debates, Meta had publicly pushed for the creation of an external regulatory framework — one that elected governments would design to clearly define what is permissible on social networks. Such a system would relieve platforms from creating their own rules, which inevitably reflect their leaders’ biases to some extent. The Oversight Board was conceived as a demonstration of what such a model could look like, with the long-term hope that governments worldwide might eventually agree on a unified oversight mechanism governing all major platforms, thereby eliminating concerns about favoritism or internal influence. So far, no such body has materialized. Instead, governments continue pressuring social networks to regulate content according to their own political interests — a far from ideal scenario. And given the global divide on how moderation should operate and how deeply authorities should be involved, the prospect of reaching a universal agreement appears remote. Still, the Oversight Board proves such a system is possible and can shape crucial policy across platforms that collectively impact billions. With more political actors seeking to steer or shape online narratives, the need for independent oversight is growing — yet global consensus remains elusive. For now, platforms will keep making judgment calls on their own, guided by internal standards and business considerations. It’s a fragile, imperfect solution. And with AI-generated content further complicating the landscape, the road ahead is only getting more tangled. Centralized governance — as demonstrated by the Oversight Board — can provide clarity. But achieving the wide agreement needed to build a global oversight body still feels out of reach. 📢 If you're interested in Facebook Ads Account, don't hesitate to connect with us!🔹 https://linktr.ee/Adshinepro💬 We're always ready to assist you!

With usage of Facebook Marketplace climbing steadily, particularly among younger audiences, Facebook is moving to tap into that momentum by introducing a new seasonal initiative: the Marketplace Holiday Shop, a curated collection designed to spotlight gift-worthy finds.  This new feature will surface trending items tied to holiday demand, making it easier for users to browse listings that could fit their Christmas shopping plans. Meta explains: “The shop showcases collections, a new feature announced last month, created in partnership with tastemaker creators like Tay BeepBoop (698K followers) and April Lockhart (50K followers), curating listings of their favorite Marketplace finds across categories like fashion, electronics, and more.” Collections is one of several Marketplace enhancements Meta rolled out recently, giving users the ability to group selected listings into themed sets.  The intent is to help people organize related items with a clear purpose in mind. In this holiday rollout, Facebook is leveraging these creator-made collections much like curated Pinterest boards, offering users a guided path through recommended products. Considering Marketplace’s growth, it’s a logical move. According to Meta, one in four young adults in the U.S. and Canada now checks Marketplace daily. During last year’s holiday season, these users gravitated toward fashion, collectibles, and electronics — underscoring the ongoing appetite for secondhand, vintage, and repurposed goods. Crucially, the Marketplace Holiday Shop will emphasize affordability, featuring items that balance desirability with price accessibility — a strategy that may further energize browsing activity. Overall, it’s a well-timed activation that could encourage more users to dive into Marketplace during the holidays. And if Meta successfully draws shoppers in with clearer buying intent, marketers across the platform stand to benefit from increased engagement. Meta notes that users can access the Facebook Marketplace Holiday Shop by searching “Holiday Shop” within the Marketplace tab of the app. 📢 If you're interested in Facebook Ads Account, don't hesitate to connect with us!🔹 https://linktr.ee/Adshinepro💬 We're always ready to assist you!

TikTok’s ambitions for a dominant in-stream shopping ecosystem still haven’t materialized at the pace the company had hoped, yet there’s no denying that TikTok commerce is steadily expanding. The momentum is slower than what the platform saw in China, but the app is now generating significant revenue from a continuous rise in in-app purchases. Its latest Black Friday performance underscores that trend. Last year, TikTok recorded a milestone $100 million in Black Friday sales. This year, the platform has once again surpassed that benchmark, showing strengthened purchasing behavior among users. TikTok explains:“With this year’s Black Friday & Cyber Monday 2025 campaign wrapped, we saw nearly 50% more shoppers who bought something on TikTok Shop in the U.S., compared to the BFCM campaign period last year. And over the four-day shopping period alone, TikTok Shop saw extraordinary growth, with sales exceeding $500 million.” So while TikTok shopping has not yet become the cultural phenomenon the company seeks, the trajectory is unmistakable: more people are buying more products directly inside the app, driven by in-stream shopping tools and ad formats that continue to mature. TikTok notes that live shopping, in particular, is becoming a major driver: “When compared to last year’s BFCM campaign period, brands and sellers hosting livestreams experienced 84% sales growth during this year’s; and, shoppers tuned into over 760K livestream sessions hosted by sellers and their favorite creators, generating over 1.6 billion views.” Additionally, TikTok creator affiliates published nearly 10 million shoppable videos throughout the weekend, adding significant fuel to TikTok’s commerce engine and broadening the reach of its in-app marketplace. This aligns with TikTok’s broader strategy. In-stream shopping is its most promising long-term monetization model, mirroring the wildly successful approach in its Chinese counterpart. In China, in-app shopping is not a side feature—it’s the primary revenue generator. For context, Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, is on track to surpass $US500 billion in gross merchandise volume this year—a staggering figure that continues to rise rapidly and illustrates exactly why TikTok is determined to replicate this success elsewhere. TikTok itself is reportedly poised to generate around $US130 billion GMV in 2025. Though still far from Douyin’s scale, this would represent a doubling of in-app sales year-over-year—a major leap by any measure. Yet TikTok’s push has not been without friction. Internally, there have been debates over how aggressively the platform should export its Chinese model to Western markets, which historically resist integrating shopping into their social media routines. Added to this is the looming uncertainty of TikTok’s future in the United States—its most valuable commerce market—where political and regulatory pressure could jeopardize the entire strategy. Even so, the latest data signals a slow but meaningful shift. Western consumers, long accustomed to separating entertainment and shopping, may be warming to TikTok’s integrated approach. The platform’s expanding consumer protections and its efforts to curb fraud are also likely playing a role in building trust. The numbers tell the story: behavior is evolving, adoption is rising, and TikTok’s e-commerce ambitions may yet become the platform’s most profitable pathway. 📢 If you're interested in Facebook Ads Account, don't hesitate to connect with us!🔹 https://linktr.ee/Adshinepro💬 We're always ready to assist you!