Harvard Law School professor Noah Feldman, one of the anti-Trump witnesses at yesterday’s impeachment inquiry, is reportedly playing a critical role in Facebook’s establishment of its content oversight board, colloquially dubbed the “Facebook Supreme Court.”
The oversight board will, among other things, review cases from banned Facebook users who argue that the termination of their accounts was unwarranted. It is meant to give banned users the right to appeal — but this is corporate due process, not state due process. The “Facebook Supreme Court” will be set up by Facebook and could be shut down at any time by Facebook.
According to a report by Harvard Law Today, Feldman was the one who first proposed the idea of a “Facebook Supreme Court” in January 2018. The purpose, according to the report, is to help Facebook “balance competing values that range from supporting free expression to combating hate speech.”
The idea intrigued Facebook, which brought Feldman on as an adviser. The social network then asked him to produce a white paper on the idea, according to Harvard Law Today. Plans to establish the Oversight Board were officially announced by the company later in the year.
Feldman, a professor of constitutional law, was one of the Democrat-selected expert witnesses at this week’s impeachment hearings against President Donald Trump.
As reported by Breitbart News’ Kristina Wong:
Gaetz then pointed out that witness Noah Feldman, professor at Harvard Law School, had written articles entitled: “Trump’s Wiretap Tweets Raise Risk of Impeachment” and “Mar-a-Lago Ad Belongs in Impeachment File.” Gaetz also noted that Feldman was the subject of an article that said, “A Harvard law professor thinks Trump could be impeached over fake news accusations.”
Gaetz also got Feldman to admit that he once wrote an article entitled, “It’s Hard to Take Impeachment Seriously Now.”
Feldman has also suggested that Democrats and liberals should lie about their distaste for Trump voters, by pretending to think Trump voters are rational.
Feldman said that anti-Trump elites should “Treat Trump voters as though they were ordinary, rational voters choosing among policy options available to them,” by engaging “selective memory” and acting “as though the whole sorry episode of [Trump’s] candidacy never occurred.”
“That would be a noble lie,” wrote Feldman.
Speaking to Harvard Law Today, Feldman said he was excited about his role in shaping the policy of a social network with “more than 2.3 billion users.”
“For me it is an exciting opportunity to be able to work closely with a social media platform that has more than 2.3 billion users to try to implement an institution that will work for protecting freedom of expression,” said Feldman.
“Facebook is undertaking a really bold experiment in borrowing an institution from public law and trying to apply it to the private sector and to social media and the internet.”
Are you an insider at Google, Reddit, Facebook, Twitter or any other tech company who wants to confidentially reveal wrongdoing or political bias at your company? Reach out to Allum Bokhari at his secure email address allumbokhari@protonmail.com.
Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News.
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