The company has changed its content moderation policy sparking widespread criticism
BY YASMIN VINCE, IMAGE BY GETTY IMAGES VIA CANVA
Meta’s content moderation policies are set to be drastically changed. These changes will significantly weaken protections for marginalised groups on their platforms, including Instagram and Facebook, as hateful messages will not be taken down.
On 6 January, it was revealed that Meta had been blocking Instagram accounts from viewing LGBTQIA content under its sensitive content policy. Now they are receiving further criticism as changes to its hateful conduct policies now explicitly allow for rhetoric targeting LGBTQIA people, as well as women and immigrants.
Under the new guidelines, previously prohibited language that excludes or negatively targets people based on sex, gender or sexual orientation will now be permitted. Topics explicitly cited as now open for “social discourse” include trans rights, immigration and homosexuality. Joel Kaplan, Meta’s chief global affairs officer, said: “We’re getting rid of a number of restrictions on topics like immigration, gender identity and gender that are the subject of frequent 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.”
As an example of the dangers the new policies pose to the LGBTQIA community, the announced changes will allow users to claim homosexuality and trans identities are a form of mental illness or abnormality as part of what they call “political and religious discourse”. The new wording also replaces explicit prohibitions on statements of inferiority, expressions of disgust and calls for exclusion to vague references to “insults”, extremely limiting the extent to which hate speech can be stopped on Meta’s platforms. Additionally, the policies no longer include clear definitions of what counts as a slur.
Meta is also set to stop fact-checking posts on Instagram and Facebook. Its previous partnerships with third-party facet-checkers has come to an end and the company will instead move to a “Community Notes” system. This requires user-generated context to flag misinformation, but the system is vulnerable to manipulation and ill-equipped to handle targeted disinformation campaigns. Political content, the type of content which most often contains misinformation, will also be disseminated to users more frequently, as Meta has reversed its strategy to reduce the visibility of civic and political discourse.
GLAAD’s president Sarah Kate Ellis said these changes would make Meta’s platforms “unsafe” for LGBTQIA users. “Without these necessary hate speech and other policies, Meta is giving the green light for people to target LGBTQ people, women, immigrants, and other marginalised groups with violence, vitriol, and dehumanising narratives. With these changes, Meta is continuing to normalize anti-LGBTQ hatred for profit — at the expense of its users and true freedom of expression. Fact-checking and hate speech policies protect free speech.”
LGBTQIA users can still report, block and mute content that they feel violates the community standards outlined by Meta. Blocking and muting accounts, hashtags and specific words can be effective in reducing individuals’ exposure to hateful content as it will filter their feeds, with algorithms responding accordingly. But reporting such content is unlikely to lead to any real consequences.
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