Meta Allows Harmful Content: Women as 'Objects' & Trans People with 'Mental Illness'

Photo : Reuters

Meta, the company that owns Facebook, has made some big changes to its rules about what people can post on its platforms, like Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. The company is no longer using professional fact-checkers and is also relaxing rules about topics like immigration, gender, and gender identity. Joel Kaplan, Meta’s new chief global affairs officer, said it wasn’t fair to allow certain things to be said on TV or in Congress but not on Meta’s platforms.

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Kaplan explained in a blog post that Meta wants its platforms to be places where people can speak freely, even if that means some posts could upset others. He said that with billions of people on these platforms, there will be both good and bad content, but that’s part of free speech. Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s CEO, also said in a video that the company’s old rules were no longer in line with what most people think.

As part of these changes, Meta updated its "Community Guidelines," which explain what kind of content is not allowed. Now, Meta will allow some things that were once banned. Users can now call women “household objects or property,” black people “farm equipment,” and transgender or non-binary people “it.” These words were once not allowed, but the rules against them have been removed.

Meta also changed its rules about talking about mental health. It now allows people to say things about “mental illness or abnormality” based on gender or sexual orientation. This is because of ongoing debates about transgender people and LGBTQ+ rights.

Other changes include allowing people to say things that were once banned, like blaming certain groups of people for spreading COVID-19. For example, people can now say that Chinese people are linked to the virus.

Meta’s new rules also allow people to argue that some jobs, like working in the military or teaching, should only be for certain genders. For example, people can now say that women should not be in the military or that men should not be allowed to teach English. The rules also allow people to share opinions based on their religious beliefs.

Meta said it understands that sometimes people share content with offensive words to report it or to criticize it. The new rules also allow people to use gender or sex-based language when talking about things like bathrooms, schools, the military, or jobs. These changes also apply to topics like transgender rights, immigration, or homosexuality.

With these changes, Meta is allowing more freedom of speech. However, some people are worried that this could lead to more harmful and offensive content on the platform.