SOCIAL
Meta Commits $150 Million to Support the Ongoing Operation of its Oversight Board
While it remains an experiment, Meta’s Oversight Board provides an interesting case study in third-party regulation of social platforms, and how official rules and regulations could help to ensure more uniformity, and fairness, within platform rulings.
Founded back in 2019, the Oversight Board is an independent group of experts to whom Meta and its users can refer appeals over platform and content decisions, providing another avenue for more complex concerns. The Board can then rule on each case, and make recommendations to Meta as to how it might update its policies in-step, which Meta doesn’t necessarily have to implement. But it provides at least some type of double-checking measure, even if it is essentially funded by Meta itself.
Which will continue to be the case, with Meta today announcing that it will contribute another $150 million to the Oversight Board Trust, enabling it to continue hearing cases, and helping to shape Meta’s policy approach.
As per the Board:
“Under the terms of the Trust, the funds contributed by the company are irrevocable and can only be used to fulfil the Trust’s purpose of funding, managing, and overseeing the operation of the Oversight Board. This $150 million contribution to the Trust is in addition to the company’s prior contribution of $130 million announced in 2019 when the Trust was first established.”
As noted, the idea of the Oversight Board was to essentially take some of the more difficult decisions out of Meta’s hands, and serve as an example of how a Government-assigned body might be able to regulate platform decisions, as opposed to each individual company making up policy stances on the fly.
Meta has long called for more regulation on more difficult decisions around freedom of speech. The most high-profile case in this respect was Meta’s decision to ban former President Donald Trump from its platforms over Trump’s incendiary remarks around the results of the 2020 Election.
Meta referred the case to the Oversight Board, in the hopes that it would be able to wash its hands of responsibility for the Trump ban, but the Board ultimately put the onus back on Zuck and Co. to make the call, while also criticizing Meta for its unclear approach to such penalties.
“In applying a vague, standardless penalty and then referring this case to the Board to resolve, Facebook seeks to avoid its responsibilities. The Board declines Facebook’s request and insists that Facebook applies and justifies a defined penalty.”
That’s in line with US law, in relation to how private companies operate, and regulate what is and is not allowed on their platforms – which, in some ways, highlights the limitations of the Board, and the example that Meta is trying to present.
Ideally, Meta doesn’t want to be the bad guy in these cases, and by outsourcing it to a panel of lawyers and academics, that then reduces the onus on its teams to take tough stances. But the Board is also beholden to existing regulations, and what Meta would really like is for Governments around the world to see this limitation, and take on a more official, rule-setting role around such speech, which would then be applied to all digital platforms across the board, taking such calls out of its hands.
That’s the ultimate hope of the Oversight Board, that it demonstrates why this is a necessary development. But in the meantime, the Board can also provide policy guidance and secondary avenues for appeal for users, which can help to alleviate at least some pressure on Meta in making such calls.
The new funding will see the Board continue this work, and with 118 policy recommendations already submitted to Meta as a result of its cases heard, it is playing a role in helping to improve Meta’s policies, while also providing an illustrative example of the need for broader regulation.
SOCIAL
Threads Looks Set to be Made Available to European Users Next Week

Good news with EU social media fans, with Threads looking set for a December 14th launch in the region, just in time to capitalize on holiday engagement.
As reported by The Verge, EU Instagram users can now access a countdown timer at www.threads.net, which seemingly indicates the exact time for the upcoming EU launch. Meta hasn’t made any official announcement, but the countdown clock is only visible to European users, while EU users can also search ‘ticket’ in the Instagram app to find a digital invitation to Threads.
Which replicates the original Threads launch back in July, which included similar Easter eggs and indicators pointing to the launch date (like the above).
The EU launch of Threads has been delayed by evolving EU data privacy regulations, which, due to the timing of the implementation of these new rules, has put additional development burden on the Threads team to ensure compliance with the new parameters. Amid the initial Threads launch, Instagram (and Threads) chief Adam Mosseri said that it could take “many months” for Threads to reach EU users due to these additional complications.
But we have since seen indicators that Threads is coming.
Last month, The Wall Street Journal reported that Meta had an established plan to launch Threads to EU users in December, while app researchers have found various references to an upcoming “Threads EU Launch” in the app’s code.

Given the various strands of evidence, it does indeed seem likely that European users will get access to the app next week. And again, with social media usage increasing during the holiday break, that would also provide the best opportunity for Meta to capitalize on its opportunities.
Which are seemingly on the rise. As more people turn away from Elon Musk’s X project, largely due to Musk’s own divisive commentary, they’re seeking a real-time social alternative, and for many Threads is already filling that void.
That’s especially true for journalists, a common target of Musk’s attacks, who are now establishing new networks within the Threads ecosphere. And while live sports engagement remains high on X, Threads is also making a push to win over more sports communities, even placing ads courtside during the new NBA in-season tournament showcase in Las Vegas.

That’s seemingly prompting more sports fans to post in the app, which will expand again with the arrival of potentially millions more users in the EU region.
So how many more users can Threads expect to gain as a result of its European expansion?
Based on Meta’s EU disclosure data on active users, Instagram currently serves some 259 million monthly active users in Europe.
Instagram’s total, official user count is 1 billion MAU, while Threads now has over 100 million monthly users. So presumably, around a tenth of active IG users are also signing up to the app, which would mean that, at a rough estimate, we’re set to see around 25.9 million new Threads users incoming, if/when Threads is launched in the EU region.
Which is probably not as many as you might expect, but this is based on rough estimates, as Instagram reportedly has more than a billion actives now, and we don’t know the exact, current user counts of either app.
But either way, it will expand the conversation in the app, and enable more people to take part, which has its own expanded benefits. And with around 60 million X users also in the region, that could see a number of them looking to make the switch.
Which is the real aim here. Meta has created Threads as the X alternative, aiming to scoop up former Twitter cast-offs who are unhappy with Elon’s changes at the app. In order to do that, Threads needs to be available in all regions where X users may be looking to jump ship, so its EU expansion is another critical step in this respect.
It’ll be interesting to see what Threads user numbers rise to over the holiday period, and whether it can indeed become a genuine rival for X in total active engagement.
We’ll keep you updated on any official announcement on the Threads EU launch.
SOCIAL
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SOCIAL
X Pitches Advertisers on Audience Reach Opportunities in ‘Q5’

X is making a push to win over advertisers in the holiday season, by promoting its opportunities in “Q5”, which covers the post-Christmas to mid-January period.
As explained by X:
“During [Q5], we see reduced CPMs and cost-per-conversion as consumers shop for post-holiday deals and products to support their New Year’s ambitions. Last year, X saw a 5% reduction in the average CPM and a 27% reduction in the average cost-per-conversion1.”
Which could present new opportunity to reach a larger audience with your promotions, if indeed they are engaging on X over the holiday period.
“Q5 is filled with a wide variety of tent-pole moments, ranging from the holidays to sports, entertainment and more. With a surge of engagement around these conversations, your brand can remain relevant to your audiences while driving maximum ROI.”
X says that, based on engagement data from last year, there are a lot of potential topics of interest for brands.
X also notes that sports video views are surging in the app, up almost 25% YoY over the past 6 months, while vertical video is also gaining momentum.
“Vertical video is the fastest growing surface on X. Over 100M people around the world are consuming vertical video daily at an average of over 13 minutes per day. On many days, vertical video accounts for around 20% of all time spent on the platform.”
Though I would advise some caution in trusting these data points.
In recent months, various questions have been raised as to what X counts as a video “view” versus an impression, which is when a post is shown in-feed.
Technically, X counts video views like this:
“The main X video view metric is triggered when a user watches a video for at least 2 seconds and sees at least 50% of the video player in-view. This applies to View metrics for both uploaded videos and live broadcasts.”
But that’s different to the actual view count that’s displayed on posts:
“Anyone who is logged into X who views a post counts as a view, regardless of where they see the post (e.g. Home, Search, Profiles, etc.) or whether or not they follow the author. If you’re the author, looking at your own post also counts as a view.”
Even worse, X counts multiple views from the same person in that count:
“Multiple views may be counted if you view a post more than once, but not all views are unique. For example, you could look at a post on web and then on your phone, and that would count as two views.”
So you can see how the public view count on video posts can massively overstate how many people actually watched a clip, which could be why X is reporting such big spikes in engagement. It just depends on which “view” metric it’s referring to here, actual views or exposure in stream.
Which makes all of these numbers a little difficult to determine, while X owner Elon Musk and CEO Linda Yaccarino have also continued to amplify misleading engagement stats via their own X profiles, muddying the waters as to what kind of actual reach and engagement you can expect.
And that’s before you consider the concerns that other advertisers have had with their promotions potentially being displayed alongside harmful or offensive content in the app.
But depending on how you feel about these aspects, and where your target audience is active, it could be worth considering X for your post-holiday promotions, as you look to maximize sales activity over the holiday period.
It’s also worth considering that with fewer big-name brands taking prime spots in the app, there may also be additional opportunity to reach people via X promotions.
There may be value, depending on your strategic thinking, though I would be keeping an eye on actual engagement
You can read more of X’s Q5 insights here.
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