shouldn’t have complete control over the limits of our political discourse. Zuckerberg said he had come to believe that a C.E.O. Its decisions would be binding, overruling even those of Mark Zuckerberg, the company’s founder. Facebook promised to change that with the Oversight Board: it would assemble a council of sage advisers-the group eventually included humanitarian activists, a former Prime Minister, and a Nobel laureate-who would hear appeals over what kind of speech should be allowed on the site. But in the past few years, as conspiracy theories, hate speech, and disinformation have spread on the platform, critics have come to worry that the company poses a danger to democracy. Since its founding, in 2004, Facebook had modelled itself as a haven of free expression on the Internet. “Clap if you can hear me,” the moderator, a woman dressed in a black jumpsuit, said. I sneaked in late and settled near the front. The participants had all signed nondisclosure agreements. The company had convened the group to discuss the Oversight Board, a sort of private Supreme Court that it was creating to help govern speech on its platforms. There were also party favors: Facebook-branded notebooks and pens. The room was laid out a bit like a technologist’s wedding, with a nametag and an iPad at each seat, and large succulents as centerpieces. On a morning in May, 2019, forty-three lawyers, academics, and media experts gathered in the windowless basement of the NoMad New York hotel for a private meeting.

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