Share and Follow
But the company also quietly updated its hateful conduct policy, adding new types of content users can post on the platform, effective immediately.
A new section of the policy notes Meta will allow “allegations of mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation, given political and religious discourse about transgenderism and homosexuality.”
Meta had hinted in its announcement about its content moderation policy changes Tuesday morning that it would get rid of restrictions on certain topics, such as immigration and gender identity. But the updated policy shows just how quickly Meta is moving to enact CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s vision for “free expression.”
Meta also announced it would do away with its network of independent fact checkers in the US and will instead rely on user-generated “community notes” to add context to posts.
It also said it would adjust its automated systems that scan for policy violations, which it says have resulted in “too much content being censored that shouldn’t have been.” The systems will now be focused only on extreme violations such as child sexual exploitation and terrorism.
Zuckerberg acknowledged that the new approach will mean “that we’re going to catch less bad stuff, but we’ll also reduce the number of innocent people’s posts and accounts that we accidentally take down.”
Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the hateful conduct policy changes.
The company’s changes come as the company and its leader have sought to curry favor with Donald Trump and other Republicans ahead of the president-elect’s second term, echoing in its announcement longstanding criticisms that Meta was “censoring” conservative voices.
Trump welcomed the changes in a press conference Tuesday and said he thinks the changes are “probably” due to threats he’s made to Zuckerberg in the past. But some experts who study the online information ecosystem raised alarms that the changes could lead to more viral false claims and hate speech on Meta’s platforms.
You might not recognise China’s richest man, but you probably use his app every day
Among the other changes to Meta’s hateful conduct policy, the company removed a prohibition against statements denying the existence of “protected” groups, such as statements that a certain group of people doesn’t or shouldn’t exist.
The policy also now allows for content arguing in favour of “gender-based limitations of military, law enforcement, and teaching jobs.”
The company also updated its “misinformation” policy to note the dissolution of its US-based fact-checking network.
