Meta announced a series of updates to its content moderation policiesamong them, the end of its fact-checking and the “removal” of restrictions on expression on topics such as immigration, gender identity and sex, which the company describes as “frequent topics of political speech and debate.” “It’s not fair that things can be said on TV or in Congress, but not on our platforms,” Joel Kaplan, Meta’s newly appointed global affairs director, wrote in a blog post explaining the changes.
In an accompanying video, CEO Mark Zuckerberg described how the company’s current standards in these areas are out of step with mainstream discourse. In tandem with the announcement, Meta made a series of updates to its “Community Guidelines,” a broad set of rules that outline what types of content are prohibited on its platforms: Instagram, Threads and Facebook. Some of the most relevant changes were made to the “Hateful Conduct” policy, which covers discussions about immigration and gender.
Accusations and offenses, all allowed
In a notable change, Meta now allows “allegations of mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientationgiven the political and religious discourse around transgenderism and homosexuality,” and the common use of words like “queer” to refer to people in the LGBTQI+ community. The company did not respond to requests for clarification about this policy.
Meta spokesperson Corey Chambliss told WIRED that these restrictions will be relaxed globally. Asked whether the company will adopt different policies in countries with strict regulations on hate speech, Chambliss only referred to Meta’s current guidelines for addressing local laws.
Other significant changes to Meta’s policy on hateful conduct are:
- The removal of the ban on content directed at people based on their “protected characteristics”including race, ethnicity and gender identity, when combined with “claims that they have or spread the coronavirus.” For example, without this provision, it may now be within limits to accuse the Chinese of being responsible for the Covid-19 pandemic.
- Meta will allow content that advocates for “gender-based limitations in military, law enforcement, and teaching jobs.” That is, it makes room for posts about how women should not be recruited into the military or that they are “household objects.”
- Another update is the conversations about social exclusion. It now finds that “people sometimes use exclusive language when talking about access to spaces often limited by sex or gender, such as access to bathrooms, to specific schools, to specific military, police or teaching functions, and to specific groups.” health or support. Previously, this was only available for health or support group discussions limited to one gender.
- Meta’s former Hateful Conduct policy stated that hate speech could “promote violence offline“. That phrase that was present since 2019, when the company admitted that its platform was used to incite attacks against religious minorities in Myanmar, was completely removed. The update does retain language toward the bottom of the policy prohibiting content that could “incite imminent violence or intimidation.”
Sam Altman was singled out last year for allegedly promoting a toxic work environment characterized by “psychological abuse.”
What does Meta’s policy preserve?
The updates also maintain a number of restrictions that Meta has had in place for years. The current version of the policy maintains bans on Holocaust denial, blackface (a practice of caricature representation of the black race) and insinuations about Jewish control of the media. It also adds a specific prohibition on comparing blacks to “farm machinery.”
Meta also maintained its previous list of what it calls protected characteristics, including race, ethnicity, national origin, disability, religious affiliation, caste, sexual orientation, sex, gender identity and serious illness, as well as its policy on “protecting migrants , immigrants and asylum seekers” from what it characterizes as “level 1” or “more serious” attacks, such as content directed at individuals or groups of people based on their protected characteristics or immigration status.
In line with the previous version, Meta prohibits referring to immigrants or people belonging to groups with protected characteristics, animal insects, pathogens and “other subhuman forms of life”, as well as alleging that they are criminals or immoral. It appears that some of the most xenophobic comments made by high-profile figures, such as President Trump’s 2023 statement about undocumented immigrants “poisoning the blood of America,” could still violate company policies if posted on their platforms. Meta did not respond to WIRED’s question about whether that specific statement would be allowed.
Article originally published in WIRED. Adapted by Alondra Flores.
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