GLAAD RESPONSE: META AND MARK ZUCKERBERG REMOVE LONG-STANDING ANTI-LGBTQ HATE SPEECH POLICIES AFTER ANNOUNCING END OF FACT-CHECKING PROGRAM

Meta Quietly Removes Major Sections of Hateful Conduct Policies Protecting LGBTQ People and Other Marginalized People

GLAAD: “Zuckerberg’s removal of fact-checking programs and industry-standard hate speech policies make Meta’s platforms unsafe places for users and advertisers alike.”

January 7, 2024 — GLAAD, the world’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) media advocacy organization, today responded after Meta removed and adapted several sections of its Hateful Conduct Policy, rolling back safety guardrails for LGBTQ people, people of color, women, immigrants, and other protected groups. These changes to the hateful conduct policy are in addition to news this morning that Meta will end its fact-checking program.

Today’s sweeping and extreme policy changes represent a wholesale abandonment of the norms and best practices of content moderation. The new language of Meta’s Community Standards includes numerous changes that will result in Instagram, Facebook, and Threads becoming unsafe landscapes filled with dangerous hate speech, violence, harassment, and misinformation. 

GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis today responded to Meta’s rollback:

“Zuckerberg’s removal of fact-checking programs and industry-standard hate speech policies make Meta’s platforms unsafe places for users and advertisers alike. Without these necessary hate speech and other policies, Meta is giving the green light for people to target LGBTQ people, women, immigrants, and other marginalized groups with violence, vitriol, and dehumanizing 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.” 

Today’s announcement includes numerous alarming changes (many entirely overturning Meta’s previous policies) to both allow anti-LGBTQ hateful rhetoric, and cease to protect LGBTQ users from being targeted with such attacks. Notably, the additions of the words “transgenderism” (a hateful right wing neologism intended to imply that being trans is an ideology) and “homosexuality” (an outdated and pathologizing way of referring to LGBTQ people) are shocking red flags. 

Stating that, “Our policies are designed to allow room for these types of speech,” Meta’s new policies now expressly allow such anti-LGBTQ speech as: “Insulting language in the context of discussing political or religious topics, such as when discussing transgender rights, immigration, or homosexuality” and “allegations of mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation, given political and religious discourse about transgenderism [sic] and homosexuality…’” Meta has also removed clauses prohibiting the following: “the usage of slurs that are used to attack people on the basis of their protected characteristics” and “Self-admission to intolerance on the basis of protected characteristics, including but not limited to: homophobic, islamophobic, racist.”

These are just a few of the many extreme new policies the company has adopted. These sweeping policy changes will harm not only the historically marginalized groups who have been stripped of protections — but all platform users who will be confronted with unmoderated, extremist rhetoric and hate.

The changes coincide with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement that the company is ending its fact-checking program, and replacing it with a “community notes”-style system. The company also stated that Meta will move its US-based content review team to Texas. In December, Zuckerberg said he seeks an “active role” in shaping tech policy in the upcoming Trump administration.

Below are just some of the changes made to Meta’s Hateful Conduct policies today: 

• • Allowances for attacks on LGBTQ people, women, and immigrants: Specifically, Meta now states: “People sometimes use sex- or gender-exclusive language when discussing access to spaces often limited by sex or gender, such as access to bathrooms, specific schools, specific military, law enforcement, or teaching roles, and health or support groups. Other times, they call for exclusion or use insulting language in the context of discussing political or religious topics, such as when discussing transgender rights, immigration, or homosexuality. Finally, sometimes people curse at a gender in the context of a romantic break-up. Our policies are designed to allow room for these types of speech.”
  • Allowances for economic exclusion of women and transgender people: In its Economic exclusion clause, Meta now states “We do allow content arguing for gender-based limitations of military, law enforcement, and teaching jobs. We also allow the same content based on sexual orientation, when the content is based on religious beliefs.”
  • Allowances for social exclusion of women and transgender people: Meta states that it now allows for content advocating for “sex or gender-based exclusion from spaces commonly limited by sex or gender, such as restrooms, sports and sports leagues, health and support groups, and specific schools.”
  • Allowances for claims that LGBTQ people are mentally ill: Meta now states “We do allow allegations of mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation, given political and religious discourse about transgenderism [sic] and homosexuality and common non-serious usage of words like ‘weird.’” Please see an explanation of “transgenderism,” a rightwing neologism that is commonly used as an anti-trans dogwhistle.

• Removal of prohibitions against dehumanization of protected groups — Previously, Meta prohibited “Dehumanizing speech in the form of comparisons to or generalizations about:
  • Inanimate objects: For example, “women as household objects or property or objects in general … transgender or non-binary people as “it.”
  • Criminals: For example, “thieves,” “bank robbers,” or saying “All [protected characteristic or quasi-protected characteristic] are ‘criminals.”
• Removal of prohibition against statements denying existence — For example,  “[protected characteristic(s) or quasi-protected characteristic] do not exist” or “[protected characteristic(s) or quasi-protected characteristic] shouldn’t exist.”
• Reducing clarity on hate speech: Meta removes prohibitions on “statements of inferiority, expressions of contempt or disgust; cursing; and calls for exclusion or segregation.”
• Reducing clarity on Meta’s definition of slurs: Previously, Meta defined slurs as speech “used to attack people on the basis of their protected characteristics.”
• Reducing clarity on “generalizations that state inferiority” and “contempt,” which Meta now calls “insults”: Meta has now removed several sections of its policy that previously prohibited harassment regarding physical appearance, mental characteristics, and other statements of protected groups being “worthless” or “freaks.”
  • Meta has removed several definitions of “contempt,” including “intolerance on the basis of protected characteristics, including but not limited to: homophobic, islamophobic, racist.”

Other changes to Meta’s hate speech policy include:

• Transitioning from the phrase “hate speech” to “hateful conduct”
• Removal of Meta’s previous acknowledgment that hate speech “creates an environment of intimidation and exclusion, and in some cases may promote offline violence.”
• Removals of additional restrictions for paid content

The current version of Meta’s policies is here, and previous versions showing what has been changed can be found on the left-hand tabs. Meta first started its efforts to combat hate speech in the 2010s, adding improvements over the last decade. Meta formalized its hate speech policy in 2018, clarifying definitions of hate speech including attacks based on race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, caste, sex, gender identity, and disability.

As highlighted in GLAAD’s 2024 Social Media Safety Index (SMSI) report, Meta’s Facebook, Threads, and Instagram are largely failing to mitigate dangerous anti-LGBTQ hate and disinformation. The June 2024 SMSI — in which Meta received a failing score for the fourth year — also recommends that Meta and other companies better train moderators on the needs of LGBTQ users.

Meta’s enforcement failures have elicited longtime concern from the Oversight Board, trust and safety experts, human rights advocates, advertisers, and even Meta’s shareholders.

About GLAAD’s Social Media Safety Program: As the leading national LGBTQ media advocacy organization GLAAD is working every day to hold tech companies and social media platforms accountable, and to secure safe online spaces for LGBTQ people. The GLAAD Social Media Safety (SMS) program researches, monitors, and reports on a variety of issues facing LGBTQ social media users — with a focus on safety, privacy, and expression. The SMS program has consulted directly with platforms and tech companies on some of the most significant LGBTQ policy and product developments over the years. In addition to ongoing advocacy work with platforms (including TikTok, X/Twitter, YouTube, and Meta’s Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and others), and issuing the highly-respected annual Social Media Safety Index (SMSI) report, the SMS program produces resources, guides, publications, and campaigns, and actively works to educate the general public and raise awareness in the media about LGBTQ social media safety issues, especially anti-LGBTQ hate and disinformation.