19 hours ago
Last Updated:January 08, 2025, 20:16 IST
Meta on Tuesday announced significant changes to its policy regarding how it moderates speech on its platforms.
Meta's updated guidelines allow users to call people mentally ill based on their sexuality or gender identity. (Representative Image)
As part of broader changes to its moderation policies and practices updated on Tuesday, Meta will now permit its billions of social media users to accuse others of having mental illnesses based on their gender identity or sexual orientation.
As with earlier versions, the company’s new rules forbid making disparaging remarks about someone’s intelligence or mental health on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. The most recent recommendations, however, now include a warning against assuming that LGBTQ individuals are “mentally ill" just because they identify as homosexual or transgender.
The guidelines now read: “We do allow 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’."
Meta on Tuesday announced significant changes to its policy regarding how it moderates speech on its platforms — Facebook, Instagram, Threads. The changes came following criticism that the company has contributed to the spread of false information, particularly on political topics and health issues like COVID-19.
Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg announced on Tuesday that the company would scrap third-party fact-checkers, replacing them with a system similar to X’s “community notes".
Zuckerberg said the changes were down to “recent elections" and “a cultural tipping point towards, once again, prioritising speech".
Notably, the changes come just before President-elect Donald Trump is set to take office. Trump and other Republicans have lambasted Zuckerberg and Meta for what they view as censorship of right-wing voices.
The move to replace third-party fact-checking with user-written “community notes" similar to those on Trump backer Elon Musk’s social platform X is the latest example of a media company moving to accommodate the incoming administration.
(With agency inputs)
Location :New York, United States of America (USA)
First Published:January 08, 2025, 20:16 IST
News tech Meta's New Guidelines Permit Users To Call LGBT+ People 'Mentally Ill'
