Meta announced a series of major updates to its content moderation policies today, including ending its fact-checking partnerships and “getting rid” of restrictions on speech about “topics like immigration, gender identity and gender” that the company describes as frequent subjects of political discourse and debate. “It’s not right that things can be said on TV or the floor of Congress, but not on our platforms,” Meta’s newly appointed chief global affairs officer, Joel Kaplan, wrote in a blog post outlining the changes.
In an accompanying video, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg described the company’s current rules in these areas as “just out of touch with mainstream discourse.”
In tandem with this announcement, the company made a number of updates across its Community Guidelines, an extensive set of rules that outline what kinds of content are prohibited on Meta’s platforms, including Instagram, Threads, and Facebook. Some of the most striking changes were made to Meta’s “Hateful Conduct” policy, which covers discussions on immigration and gender.
In a notable shift, the company now says it allows “allegations of mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation, given political and religious discourse about transgenderism and homosexuality and common non-serious usage of words like ‘weird.’”
In other words, Meta now appears to permit users to accuse transgender or gay people of being mentally ill because of their gender expression and sexual orientation. The company did not respond to requests for clarification on the policy.
If words didn’t have power and it was all about “meaningfully improving lives” then the right wouldn’t be fighting so hard in defense of hate speech and the ability to persecute marginalized groups with their language and writing.
I think it’s more about being able to play as the oppressed, and whip up their base. There have been many platforms where they could post their hate. Censoring speech just fuels outrage and invites the Streisand effect.
But in this case I don’t think Zuck really cares about enabling these right-wing messages. It’s about saving money by cutting a bunch of expensive fact checkers, and displaying friendliness toward the new president; either because they don’t want to be singled out for punishment, or they hope to be rewarded with some largess.
It’s not about money spent on fact checkers you’re just speculating with no basis, it’s about getting with the program with Musk and Trump. Simple as that. Because that is how he’ll make money. Did you even read the article? He made a concrete statement about “protecting free speech” and that he agreed with Trump. It’s right there.
Anyway all of this is completely different from your initial comment. You trivialized the power of words when the fact is the weight they can carry is enormous. Again as evidenced by how much screeching we hear on the right about this.
It’s not even about free speech, it’s about people not wanting social repercussions for their words.