Meta announced a series of major updates to its content moderation policies today, including ending its fact-checking partnerships and “getting rid” of restrictions on speech about “topics like immigration, gender identity and gender” that the company describes as frequent subjects of political discourse and debate. “It’s not right that things can be said on TV or the floor of Congress, but not on our platforms,” Meta’s newly appointed chief global affairs officer, Joel Kaplan, wrote in a blog post outlining the changes.

In an accompanying video, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg described the company’s current rules in these areas as “just out of touch with mainstream discourse.”

In tandem with this announcement, the company made a number of updates across its Community Guidelines, an extensive set of rules that outline what kinds of content are prohibited on Meta’s platforms, including Instagram, Threads, and Facebook. Some of the most striking changes were made to Meta’s “Hateful Conduct” policy, which covers discussions on immigration and gender.

In a notable shift, the company now says it allows “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.’”

In other words, Meta now appears to permit users to accuse transgender or gay people of being mentally ill because of their gender expression and sexual orientation. The company did not respond to requests for clarification on the policy.

  • @BonesOfTheMoon
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    4420 hours ago

    You can now refer to women as property on Facebook and they are A-OK with that! But you will, and it has happened to me, catch an instant ban if you say all men are trash.

    • @[email protected]
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      819 hours ago

      Maybe it’s just me but I don’t think people should be saying or be allowed to say either of those two things. Neither of those two things are good for anyone.

      • @BonesOfTheMoon
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        518 hours ago

        In the context I said it myself it was because of Trump the rapist. I am very tired of women being raped and everything that comes with conservatives normalizing it.

      • @[email protected]
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        011 hours ago

        I think people should be able to say whatever bs they want to, but their identity should be attached to it.