Facebook’s Libra appoints HSBC legal chief as CEO, ‘supreme court’ members announced
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Libra Association, the entity managing the Facebook Inc-led effort to build global digital currency Libra, named Stuart Levey as its first chief executive officer.
Levey is currently serving as Chief Legal Officer of HSBC.
The prospect of Facebook’s 2.5 billion users adopting Libra has led to intense scrutiny from global regulators, with many worried its launch could erode national control over money.
Libra’s most prominent original backers, including payments giants Mastercard Inc, Visa Inc and PayPal Holdings Inc, also ditched the project in the wake of the scrutiny.
In April, its governing body said Libra will be linked to individual national currencies and overseen by global watchdogs, in a scaled-back revamp it hopes will win regulatory approval.
Meanwhile, Facebook has announced who will sit on an independent board, set up to have ultimate say over what controversial content should be taken down.
Former Danish prime minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt will co-chair the panel with three others.
The panel said they will judge some of the “hardest cases out there.”
Initially consisting of 16 members, there are plans to expand numbers to 40. It will begin hearing cases later this year.
At first this will just be deliberating on content that individuals feel has been wrongfully removed but, in following months, it will also look at appeals from users who want Facebook to remove content.
Members are a mix of journalists, judges, digital rights activists and former government advisers from around the globe, including:
Afia Asantewaa Asare-Kyei – a human rights advocate who works on women’s rights and media freedom across Africa
Evelyn Aswad – a law professor who served as a senior US state department lawyer
Nighat Dad – a digital rights advocate, based in Pakistan
Alan Rusbridger – former editor-in-chief of The Guardian newspaper
Emi Palmor – a former director general of the Israeli ministry of justice
Ronaldo Lemos, a lawyer who co-created a national internet rights law in Brazil
