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.

  • MiDaBa@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    13
    ·
    16 hours ago

    META is failing. Mark is bending the knee because that’s his only move.

    • dx1@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      edit-2
      15 hours ago

      Joel David Kaplan (born 1969) is an American political advisor, lobbyist, and attorney. In January 2025, it was announced that Kaplan will become the president of global affairs of Meta Platforms, owner of Facebook, in Spring 2025.[1][2][3] He has been the company’s vice president of global public policy since 2011.

      A longtime Republican political operative, Kaplan served eight years in the George W. Bush administration, including as White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy.[4]

      Embarrassing no matter what your politics are. The fuck is the former White House Deputy Chief of Staff (the successor of Karl Rove under GWB, ffs) doing at Facebook? Did the job offer to Hitler fall through?

    • ThomasCrappersGhost
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      14 hours ago

      I have this theory that social media platforms only last so long …Facebook was doing a brilliant job of disproving my theory.