By Elizabeth Culliford
(Reuters) – Facebook Inc
Facebook announced a group of 20 members, including four co-chairs who helped select the others. The board, which is expected to start hearing cases this summer, is planned to grow to about 40 members.
Here is a list of the oversight board’s first members:
Co-chairs
CATALINA BOTERO-MARINO
Botero-Marino is a Colombian attorney who was the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States from 2008 to 2014. She is now Dean of the Universidad de los Andes Faculty of Law.
JAMAL GREENE
Greene is a Columbia Law professor whose scholarship focuses on constitutional rights adjudication and the structure of legal and constitutional argument. He was a law clerk to Judge Guido Calabresi on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and for Justice John Paul Stevens on the U.S. Supreme Court.
MICHAEL MCCONNELL
McConnell, now a constitutional law professor at Stanford Law, was U.S. federal circuit judge. Appointed by Republican President George W. Bush, he was viewed as a possible U.S. Supreme Court nominee. He is an expert on religious freedom and a Supreme Court advocate who has represented clients in First Amendment cases.
HELLE THORNING-SCHMIDT
Thorning-Schmidt was the first woman prime minister of Denmark. The Social Democrat, who led a coalition government from 2011-2015, then served as the chief executive officer of humanitarian charity Save the Children International.
Other members
AFIA ASANTEWAA ASARE-KYEI
A dual Ghanaian and South African citizen, Asare-Kyei is a human rights advocate who works on women’s rights, media freedom, and access to information issues across Africa at the Open Society Initiative for West Africa.
EVELYN ASWAD
Aswad, now a University of Oklahoma College of Law professor, formerly served as a senior U.S. State Department lawyer. She specializes in the application of international human rights standards to content moderation issues.
ENDY BAYUNI
Bayuni is an Indonesian journalist who twice served as the editor-in-chief of the Jakarta Post and is involved with several media advocacy organisations across the region.
KATHERINE CHEN
A former national communications regulator in Taiwan, Chen is currently a professor in public relations and statistics at Taiwan’s National Chengchi University. Her research focuses on social media, mobile news, and privacy.
NIGHAT DAD
Dad is a Pakistani lawyer and internet activist who runs the Digital Rights Foundation, a nonprofit organization focused on cyber harassment, data protection and free speech online in Pakistan and South Asia.
PAMELA KARLAN
Karlan is a Stanford law professor and U.S. Supreme Court advocate who has represented clients in voting rights, LGBTQ+ rights, and First Amendment cases. She testified during President Donald Trump’s impeachment hearings. Karlan worked in the Justice Department’s civil rights division during the Obama administration.
TAWAKKOL KARMAN
The Yemeni human rights activist and journalist became the first Arab woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize in 2011 in recognition of her non-violent push for change during the Arab Spring.
MAINA KIAI
Kiai is a Kenyan lawyer and human rights activist who is director of Human Rights Watch’s Global Alliances and Partnerships Program and who served as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association from 2011 to 2017.
SUDHIR KRISHNASWAMY
Krishnawamy, the Vice-Chancellor of the National Law School of India University, is an expert on India’s constitutional law and a civil society activist.
RONALDO LEMOS
Lemos is a Brazilian academic and lawyer who co-created a national internet rights law in Brazil and co-founded a nonprofit focused on technology and policy issues. He teaches law at the Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro.
JULIE OWONO
Owono is a lawyer and the executive director of Internet Sans Frontieres, a digital rights organization based in France. She campaigns against internet censorship in Africa and around the world.
EMI PALMOR
Palmor is a former director general of the Israeli Ministry of Justice, who led initiatives to address racial discrimination and advance access to justice via digital services and platforms.
ALAN RUSBRIDGER
Rusbridger is a British journalist who was the editor-in-chief of the Guardian newspaper. He is now the principal of Lady Margaret Hall, a college of Oxford University.
ANDRAS SAJO
A Hungarian legal academic and former judge at the European Court of Human Rights, Sajo is an expert in comparative constitutionalism and was involved in the drafting of the Ukrainian, Georgian and South African constitutions.
JOHN SAMPLES
Samples is a vice president at the Cato Institute, a U.S. libertarian think tank. He advocates against restrictions on online expression and writes on social media and speech regulation.
NICOLAS SUZOR
Suzor is an associate law professor at Queensland University of Technology in Australia who studies the governance of social networks and the regulation of automated systems.
(Reporting by Elizabeth Culliford in Birmingham, England and additional reporting by Fanny Potkin in Singapore; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
