Meta’s new hate speech rules allow users to label LGBTQ people as mentally ill

Meta’s new hate speech rules allow users to label LGBTQ people as mentally ill

Meta will allow its billions of social media users to accuse people of being mentally ill based on their sexuality or gender identity, making broader changes to its moderation policies and practices on Tuesday.

The company’s new policies, like previous versions, prohibit insults about a person’s intelligence or mental illness on Facebook, Instagram and Threads. However, the latest guidelines now include a caveat to allegations that LGBTQ people are mentally ill because they are gay or transgender.

“Given the political and religious discourse surrounding transgenderism and homosexuality and the frequent, non-serious use of words such as ‘weird,’ we allow claims of mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation,” the revised ones say Company policies.

The new hate speech policies are part of Meta’s broader major changes to how the company moderates online speech on its platforms. On Tuesday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company would replace its fact-checking program, which relies on trusted organizational partners, with a community-driven system similar to X’s Community Notes. Zuckerberg’s system cited “the recent election” and “a cultural tipping point to once again prioritize speech.”

The long list of changes to the new hate speech guidelines includes the removal of rules that prohibit insults to a person’s appearance based on race, ethnicity, national origin, disability, religious affiliation, caste, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity and serious illness. Meta also removed policies that prohibited expressions of hatred against a person or group based on their protected class and prohibited users from referring to transgender or non-binary people as “it.”

GLAAD, an LGBTQ media advocacy group, condemned the changes.

“Without these necessary hate speech and other policies, Meta gives people the green light to target LGBTQ people, women, immigrants and other marginalized groups with violence, vitriol and dehumanizing narratives,” President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said in a statement. “With these changes, Meta continues to normalize anti-LGBTQ hate for profit – at the expense of its users and true freedom of expression.” Fact-checking and hate speech policies protect free expression.”

A Meta spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

CEOs and business leaders in the tech industry and beyond are ramping up their efforts to woo President-elect Donald Trump. Meta is among several tech companies and executives — including Amazon, Apple CEO Tim Cook and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman — who have donated $1 million to Trump’s second inaugural fund in recent weeks. Meta also announced Tuesday that UFC’s Dana White, a longtime Trump supporter, will join the board.

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