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.
I’m trans. I do have mental illness. It’s because society keeps sending me signals that I shouldn’t exist.
For what it’s worth, I am hereby sending you the official signal that you should absolutely exist, that you have every right to be yourself, and that your continued existence is important and meaningful for yourself and others in similar situations especially. I hope you will forever be gifted with the courage to be yourself, even when the world is challenging you on it.
It’s the village, not the individuals. Our society is fucking sick. I’m straight, but it (the intolerance and violence towards people who are different) makes me sick.
This person gets it.
Thank you.
You listen to society? They’re the ones that invented gender characteristics and stereotypes. If you listen to them there’s a chance you’ll get caught up in their bullshit instead of just being what you’d be if there was no other human on earth.
Kind of hard not to listen to society when you’re a part of it. It’s like saying to try to not listen to the music while you’re at a nightclub.
I’d like out of this nightclub. Maybe move to a different, more pleasant nightclub.
I understand that are trying to be nice, but it’s kinda rude tbh. Because you are making it seem like the problems they have aren’t actually real. They might not have an alternative nightclub to go to because all of them are shit, or they can’t go to another nightclub.
Is gender dysphoria not considered a health issue?? Legit asking. Like I thought the whole point of transitioning is that that is the treatment for it. That’s not a BAD thing, but it is A thing. Calling gay people mentally ill is obviously non sense. Calling ALL trans people mentally ill I don’t think is accurate… if they’ve actually transitioned lmao. Then they’re not sick anymore ?? Plz let me know if that take is incorrect. Feel like having pre-transition gender dysphoria compared to other mental illnesses like anxiety/depression/etc is a positive thing because it normalizes it to a degree.
Big difference between them being… there IS actually a cure to gender dysphoria compared to many other mental illnesses that can only be treated. Arguing with a right winger about this shit, he said he felt bad for trans people and that they were mentally ill. My response was “yeah no shit, you realize the way to reduce their risk of suicide is by letting them get the care they and their doctors deem necessary. It’s straight cruelty to acknowledge that it is something they need help with yet demonizing them for seeking help.”
Guess the people saying shit like the headline aren’t doing so with nuance in mind, and for them anyone trans at all = weird/mentally ill/sick.
The whole thing with trans health is that being trans is not considered a mental illness but gender dysphoria still has a diagnostic rubric and has health problems associated. So saying trans people who have transitioned aren’t sick anymore isn’t quite accurate because they were never considered sick in the first place. One of the ideas behind this way of thinking is a trans person’s issues aren’t caused because they are trans, it’s caused largely due to the lack of acceptance and support in the society around trans people. Framing transness as a mental illness also ignores the flipside of dysphoria - gender euphoria which is a very specific joy experienced by trans people expressing themselves healthily, it’s not simply from lessening pain around dysphoria, it’s basically something mostly unique to the trans experience that is overwhelmingly positive.
Also there’s not a one size fits all response to dysphoria. Some chose to physically transition and others choose to use other management techniques to help. There isn’t a “cure” to gender dysphoria. There are limits to what can be achieved through physical transition even if one goes all the way. One can have dysphoria around stuff like not having periods and child bearing capabilities even if they are fully transitioned or there are things that are irreversible if the transition happens too late. Being trans can be a kind of complicated state of being where one needs to learn and implement how best to be supported. Framing it not as an illness removes the stigma of looking at the experience entirely clinically as something to be solved. The fix isn’t to be “less trans” as it is when one approaches something as a disorder to be removed and minimized.
You pretty much have it right. Many-to-most trans people will suffer from or experience gender dysphoria to varying degrees, which is treated with hormone replacement therapy, transitioning, surgery, talk therapy, etc… Once trans people are at a state where they feel comfortable with their bodies (or achieve a congruence between their inner and outer selves), then gender dysphoria is technically no longer present, but may return if the body or the mind changes and are no longer congruent.
Medically, this means that trans people can have an official diagnosis of gender dysphoria and get treatment for it. Gender dysphoria then goes away (hopefully) and preventative treatment like HRT continues.
Trans people can obviously also have mental disorders unrelated to being trans.
What trump wants to do to trans people is the equivalent of lobotomizing everyone with bipolar disorder because you don’t believe the accepted treatments work.
Gender dyspohoria is a mental health condition the same way ADHD is. Do you run around calling people with ADHD mentally ill? No. And, gender dysphoria is one of the easiest neurodivergent conditions to treat. You let the person be the gender they already know they are. Doing anything else may as well be lobotomizing them. It’s unacceptable and creates more problems. Plus it’s fucking cruel.
My thoughts exactly. As an outsider looking in, how would you classify gender dysphoria other than an illness?
It’s treatable, just not the way religious fanatics want to.
It’s our current iteration of society that shouldn’t exist.
Reminder to get off Facebook and Instagram
This isn’t the first time they’ve pulled stuff like this nor will it be the last
Meta went all in on the VR Metaverse to woo the next generation and just shot themselves in the foot.
VR Metaverse would have worked if they let people have legs.
Meta would not have liked WHY it would have worked, however…
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Businesses need to bring back email newsletters. And whatever celebrities or whatnot you care about need to too. The only reason I signed back up for either of those sites was to follow a local business for updates/sales/etc.
Reminder to get off Facebook and Instagram
Most of us are already out or lurking because of family or some specific group they can’t do without.
The trick will be getting those people off the platform so we can cut all cords.
Excuses…
Yeah the answer is to delete your account and find alternative messengers for people you actually care about. Others that care will follow.
Facebook has about 3 billion users across the globe. That’s just 500 million short of half the human population of the planet. At its height Twitter was around 360 million. And it’s user base has only shrunk by 30 million or so since the douche bag took it over.
Facebook, on the other hand, has dug its hooks into everyone’s personal lives to a point at which getting them to ditch Facebook would be like telling everyone to basically ditch their friends and family. No one is going to do that.
Twitter was an add-on. It was an extra. You could use it or not, nobody cared. It hadn’t built a large enough user base to be so integral to people’s social lives. TikTok, in about half the time twitter has existed, has basically eclipsed it in terms of monthly active users.
We have to accept this fact, Facebook has become an institution. And it should scare literally everyone that such a huge and powerful platform is owned by one single person with no real oversight whatsoever. That is why he was able to unilaterally decide to first censor Facebook at the beginning of the election and now uncensor it once an oligarch friendly president has been elected.
Everyone’s so focused on DElon Husk’s role in getting Trump elected, but all Zuckerberg needed to do was shut down the discourse on his platform so that the news couldn’t flow. And now he’s adopting the policies of Xwitter in an effort to win some favoritism from the incoming administration.
Religion is a mental illness.
Preach! But you know, not really.
Trans activism sometimes sounds like what religion sounded like in the early 80s. Lots of liturgy, false dichotomies and declaring some people irredeemably evil, and the belief in a soul.
Let’s be honest, they already allow rampant, dangerous misinformation, bullying, and hate speech. They’re just being a little more honest about it, now.
The mask has slipped because they know they can get away with it.
After all,this isn’t anything forced on Meta, they are taking advantage of the incoming president being all for this and binning policies they clearly only follower reluctantly (and poorly).
I don’t think it’s a mask, I think they’re signaling and competing for favor. The timing is obvious.
Don’t forget that they will actively defend hate speech and overly police the opposite because their moderators aren’t moderated. They have literal priests dictating what is considered misoginy and homophobia ffs (True story).
Fucking insanity, right wing popularism here we come.
U.S. Defamation law:
To prove prima facie defamation, a plaintiff must show four things: 1) a false statement purporting to be fact; 2) publication or communication of that statement to a third person; 3) fault amounting to at least negligence; and 4) damages, or some harm caused to the reputation of the person or entity who is the subject of the statement.
- false statement. ✔️
- publication ✔️
- negligence proven by not understanding why it was banned from communications just recently on their platform ✔️
- harm to the reputation of a person. (If 1 person believes or republished that information they have fulfilled 4 categories.)
I’d say your freedom of speech does not cover that at all because there was intent to harm others.
Guillotine Luigi.
What did Mario bros do to deserve such fate
People need to stop using Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads, and Instagram.
I wrote my deletion post just a few hours ago actually. Cited sexism, homophobia, anti-immigration, no more fact-checking etc. I said I’d leave the account up for a few days in case anyone wanted to arrange a way to stay in contact (since I’ve had friends there since 2007), but after that I’m gone.
Cite this article before you go.
I remember back in 2017 or so when I left Facebook and did the same, only a handful arranged to keep contact otherwise. Ever since if I’ve met anyone from those years by accident, they’ve been very bitter that I just left them and didn’t stay in contact.
So just kind of a warning here, not everyone will be normal about it. It’s truly weird since I did the same; left a clear announcement I’d leave and hoped those interested would get in touch to figure out another way. Still so many, even after so many years, can feel betrayed and hurt because of that.
Thanks for the heads up. I can see how that would happen. In my case I posted literally once or twice a year since 2020 or so, and the last time I talked to anyone other than family was 6 months ago. I have several dozen “friends” that will see the post, but leaving likely won’t affect much other than them being able to see photographs on FB/Instagram. Everyone I actually interact with knows other ways to contact me.
They won’t.
Facebook, Instagram and Threads are easy, I was never on Threads and largely used the others for following people and groups rather than actively posting.
WhatsApp is the tricky one as all my friends and family are on there and it is pretty important. I could get some people to move to Matrix but not everyone. Luckily, it’s the one that is the most difficult to enshittify. Still…
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I’m with you on Signal. Problem is most of WhatsApp users see Telegram, not Signal, as an alternative because it had more coverage over time, while Signal had zero.
Yup! When I announced I’d leave WhatsApp back in the day, even my (old) parents and some (even older) relatives proceeded to download signal just to stay in touch with me.
Sure, I miss some news or announcements that they share in the big WhatsApp groups, but mostly I’m as up to date as everyone.
Most of my friends did the same, but I noticed my age group (and younger) seem more adaptable here and very quickly figured everything out, and we got some groups entirely moved there. I suppose they feel okay having multiple apps for one thing, as opposed to the older gens, who struggle to learn one thing properly and try their best to just stick with it until eternity.
Haven’t missed WhatsApp a bit, it was the least impactful of all of the meta suite (and others) I left behind back in 2017(?) or so.
Meta is bad, but why leave WhatsApp? No ads, no moderation, no interference.
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The whole of American society is slowly shifting towards widespread acceptance of violence against queer people. Any notion that our society or culture has progressed in any way is fake. It’s empty. The post Stonewall era of perceived progress is over. For many queer people, the approach of January 20th is a shadow encroaching on the light of lives we hoped to live. Fear is becoming very commonplace in our communities. There’s no mistaking what the people in power plan to do to us. And every day, widespread society shows more and more that that’s fine. Any debate that we deserve rights is over. We are a problem for those in power to choose how to get rid of. Our lives are completely at the whims of the state, a state now being handed over to a group of people who delight in our suffering. Who delight in the suffering of children.
I fully expect states like Florida to criminalize being queer as soon as Trump takes office. They will start to raid night clubs and arrest trans people under crossdressing laws and gay people under sodomy laws. Just like they did in the 60s. We will be forced into hiding. We will grow up never understanding who we are or that its okay for people like us to exist. A whole generation of queer children will die because of laws like this. Nothing has changed.
Shoot 'em. The cops, I mean.
I wish, oh how I wish I could say you were lying or fear mongering.
The Democrats claiming they lost because they were “Too woke” and “Transpepole are to blame!11” despite the exit polls not supporting the reality of that idea was just manufacturing consent.
Soon the Metaverse will resemble a classic CoD lobby.
Does the metaverse even exist? Like is it a thing people use?
This video is from last year and I doubt anything’s changed. It’s pretty funny if you haven’t seen it
I really like this video too
I’m just happy to see the old internet make a come back.
I’d rather be called the n-word by someone claiming to be having sexual relations with my mother.
Because I’m tired of hearing about how “PDF-files” went and “game-ended themselves”, because they had “corn” on their phones.
I prefer cesspools to a society so impossibly polite that it can only be a cover for a dystopia.
Yup. It’s insane that Demolition Man is becoming a non-fiction work.
Kinda saw it coming ten years ago when I realized that Demolition Man’s world was one where the mainstream was tumblr, and the counter culture forced to live in squalor for refusing to play along was 4Chan.
Heck Doug Walker had the same observation in his Nostalgia Critic review of the movie…
So will the EU call him up to explain or do nothing?
Dude does realise he operates outside of the US theatre as well, yeah? And his shitty site was already drawing heat from many governments.
That’s where things get even more worrying.
As it stands, he still has to abide by EU and British laws but then there’s this:
That suggests that social media laws could be part of the negotiation with other countries who don’t want to get wrecked by tariffs.
As weakening those laws will lead to an increase in unchallenged far right posts, they could have knock on effects in elections. Trump will have seen how effective the changes at Xitter were for him, so spreading that to other social media platforms is already a win for him but being able to impact the political landscape elsewhere would be a bonus - France and German are having problems fending off the far right and if they gained control they’d be a lot more compliant to his demands which has knock-on effects for the EU and NATO.
The far right hates america more than you can imagine. They would be more likely to leave NATO than talking to the USA
These changes are only happening in the US. They wouldn’t be allowed to do this in the EU anyway, not without being sued loads.
His website and the posts in question are accessible from the EU though.
They already allowed it on Facebook, they just pretended they didn’t while that kind of speech thrived on Facebook.
It feels like the statements about the removal of fact-checking (which is all I heard about on the news) is misdirection, so the changes made deep in their policy documents get less attention than they deserve.
Elon Musk is gay
Don’t insult us by association
He said he’s gay, not that he’s a shark fucker. Unless you’re a gay shark fucker? 🤔
15 years in the making to unban “fake and gay”
