Meta removes many hate speech protections

Meta rewrote the “hate speech” section of its Community Guidelines, significantly broadening the content allowed on its platforms Facebook, Instagram and Threads. The rewritten section is now called “hateful conduct” and removes the statement that hate speech “creates an environment of intimidation and exclusion”. It also removes every mention to “offline violence” that could result from online hate speech.

Most of all, this rewrite adds some clear permissions:

• We do allow allegations of mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation, given political and religious discourse about transgenderism¹ and homosexuality (line 1346).
• 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 (line 1340).
• Using “sex- or gender-exclusive language when people […] 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. […] Our policies are designed to allow room for these types of speech.” (line 1297)

Beyond these additions, another revealing change is the removal of bans on specific forms of hate speech. Thanks to Open Terms Archive history tracking, we know that the following content that was previously forbidden is now allowed on Instagram, Facebook and Threads starting on January 7:

• Comparing people to (lines 1338 to 1342):

• Certain inanimate objects and non-human states:
• Certain objects (women as household objects or property or objects in general; Black people as farm equipment; transgender or non-binary people as “it”)
• Feces (including but not limited to: shit, crap)
• Filth (including but not limited to: dirt, grime, or saying “[protected characteristic or quasi-protected characteristic] has bad hygiene”)
• Disease (including but not limited to: cancer, sexually transmitted diseases)
• Criminals

• Statements denying existence of a group of people (line 1361).
• Calls for “expelling certain groups” (line 1403).
• Calls 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.” (line 1341).
• Claims that some people are responsible for or spreading Covid-19 (line 1414).

Beyond the removal of these specific prohibitions, the update also removed a statement according to which Instagram has “additional restrictions for paid content.”

Since several of the types of speech that are now allowed are illegal in most European countries, the section adds a direct link to legal removal requests for European users.

Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on the day these changes were published that “it’s time to get back to our roots around free expression and giving people voice on our platforms.” In particular, he stated that Meta will “simplify our content policies and remove restrictions on topics like immigration and gender that are out of touch with mainstream discourse.”