Alarm as Meta Drops Anti-LGBTQ Hate Speech Policies

Meta and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, are facing criticism for aligning with the Trump-fueled conservatism sweeping through the American tech sector by dropping restrictions on hate speech targeting LGBTQ people.

LGBTQ media advocacy organisation GLAAD raised alarms about the policy changes by the company, which owns platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Threads. The groups said that these changes will affect LGBTQ people, people of colour, women, immigrants, and other protected groups.

According to GLAAD, the changes are “sweeping and extreme” and “represent a wholesale abandonment of the norms and best practices of content moderation.”

Meta’s announcement overturns its previous policies and will, said GLAAA, “allow anti-LGBTQ hateful rhetoric and cease to protect LGBTQ users from being targeted with such attacks.”

The organisation cites the example of the company now allowing words like “transgenderism” (an offensive right-wing term intended to imply that being transgender is an ideology), as well as discussions framing homosexuality as a mental illness.

Meta states, “Our policies are designed to allow room for these types of speech,” including “language in the context of discussing political or religious topics, such as when discussing transgender rights, immigration, or homosexuality.”

The company will also permit claims that LGBTQ people are mentally ill, stating: “We do allow allegations of mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation, given political and religious discourse about transgenderism [sic] and homosexuality.”

Meta has further removed clauses prohibiting the following: “the usage of slurs that are used to attack people on the basis of their protected characteristics” and “Self-admission to intolerance on the basis of protected characteristics, including but not limited to: homophobic, Islamophobic, racist.”

On Tuesday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg also announced on Instagram that the company is ending its fact-checking programme and replacing it with a “community notes”-style system, stating, “It’s time to get back to our roots around free expression.”

Echoing the stance of X owner Elon Musk, who took similar measures on his platform, Zuckerberg said, “The recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping point towards once again prioritising speech.”

GLAAD noted that in December, Zuckerberg expressed his intention to take an “active role” in shaping tech policy under the upcoming Trump administration.

“Zuckerberg’s removal of fact-checking programmes and industry-standard hate speech policies makes Meta’s platforms unsafe places for users and advertisers alike,” said GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis.

“Without these necessary hate speech and other policies, Meta is giving the green light for people to target LGBTQ people, women, immigrants, and other marginalised groups with violence, vitriol, and dehumanising narratives,” Ellis continued.

She argued that the changes will “normalise anti-LGBTQ hatred for profit — at the expense of its users and true freedom of expression,” adding that “Fact-checking and hate speech policies protect free speech.”

Zuckerberg has joined other tech leaders, including Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Apple’s Tim Cook, in courting favour with Trump and his administration by each donating $1 million to the incoming president’s inauguration later this month.