Facebook Inc.'s new content oversight board will include a former head of state, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and several constitutional law experts and rights advocates in its first 20 members, the company announced on Wednesday.

The independent board, which will be able to overturn Facebook and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg's decisions on whether individual pieces of content should be allowed on Facebook and Instagram, is a high-profile response to criticism of how the social media company handles problematic content.

Facebook (FB) said the board's members have lived in 27 countries and speak at least 29 languages, though a quarter of the group and two of the four co-chairs are from the United States, where the company is headquartered.

The co-chairs, who selected the other members jointly with Facebook, are former U.S. federal circuit judge and religious freedom expert Michael McConnell, constitutional law expert Jamal Greene, Colombian attorney Catalina Botero-Marino and former Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt.

Among the initial cohort are: former European Court of Human Rights judge András Sajó, Internet Sans Frontières Executive Director Julie Owono, Yemeni Nobel Peace Prize laureate Tawakkol Karman, Australian internet governance researcher Nicolas Suzor and Pakistani digital rights advocate Nighat Dad.

Nick Clegg, Facebook's head of global affairs, told Reuters in a Skype interview that the board's composition was important but that its credibility would be earned over time.

"I don't expect people to say, 'Oh hallelujah, these are great people, this is going to be a great success' - there's no reason anyone should believe that this is going to be a great success until it really starts hearing difficult cases in the months and indeed years to come," he said.

The oversight board will start work immediately and Clegg said it would begin hearing cases this summer.

The board, which will grow to about 40 members and which Facebook has pledged $130 million to fund for at least six years, will make public, binding decisions on a small slice of controversial cases where users have exhausted Facebook's usual appeals process. The company can also refer significant decisions to the board, including on ads or on Facebook groups.

The board can make policy recommendations to Facebook based on case decisions, to which the company will publicly respond. See how the board will work:

"We are not the internet police, don't think of us as sort of a fast-action group that's going to swoop in and deal with rapidly moving problems," co-chair McConnell told reporters on a conference call, saying the board would instead deliver "an after-the-fact, deliberative, second look."

Facebook said when reporting its most recent quarterly results that around 3 billion users interacted with at least one of its apps each month in the quarter.

The oversight board members' roles are part-time but the board's administrative head, Thomas Hughes, said working hours had not been decided. He said members' pay will be set at a normal level for the technology sector but would not be disclosed.

Some free expression and internet governance experts told Reuters they thought the board's first members were a diverse, impressive group, though some were concerned there were not more content moderation experts or that it was too heavy on U.S. members. Facebook said one reason for having a strong set of U.S. members was that some of its hardest decisions or appeals in recent years had begun in America.

"I don't feel like they made any daring choices," said Jillian C. York, the Electronic Frontier Foundation's director of international freedom of expression.

David Kaye, U.N. special rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, told Reuters the board's efficacy would be shown when it started hearing cases, but that it could not be a catch-all solution to issues of online speech on the site.

"The big question," he said, "will be, are they taking questions that might result in decisions, or judgments as this is a court, that go against Facebook's business interests?" 

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 organizations 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.