Please attribute the following statement to LGBT Tech.
Meta has introduced new content policies and hate speech guidelines that severely and negatively impact LGBTQ+ users at an incredibly vulnerable time for marginalized communities in general. Meta’s new policies will leave LGBTQ+ users exposed to the same bigotry and vitriol they come to online platforms to escape.
Amid these new guidelines is the explicit permission of homophobic and transphobic language, including the allowance of “allegations of mental illness or abnormality” as an insult specifically when referring to LGBTQ+ people. Rules against expressions of hate or insults towards protected classes have been eliminated, as has a specific previous ban on referring to transgender or non-binary people as “it.” By drawing attention to exactly what hateful language is now acceptable, these policies all but guarantee its proliferation, harming the very users who rely on Meta’s platforms for connection, safety, and affirmation.
We believe that free speech and user protection are not mutually exclusive. We believe that content moderation balances on a delicate and necessary tightrope between the two. And we believe that unless moderation policy distinguishes between fostering debate and normalizing dehumanizing narratives, that the balance falters and falls.
There are tens of millions of LGBTQ+ individuals in the United States and hundreds of millions worldwide—a significant and diverse population that leans on social media platforms to learn about and to share what it means to be part of this community. These are millions of Meta users who now see their identities, experiences, and ultimately safety codified in company policy as a negligible cost of free expression. This is not balance.
We are calling on Meta to rethink these policies and to reinstitute the balance between free speech and user protection necessary to ensure the safety of marginalized communities on its platforms. We are calling on Meta to address challenges around censorship without irrevocably damaging the inclusive environment it has built in the process.