“Disgusting!” The new moderation policy on Meta platforms, announced Tuesday January 7 by Mark Zuckerberg, boss of the group, sparked indignation on social networks. “New Meta guidelines do not allow people to be treated as mentally ill – unless they are LGBT+”deplored the collective account on Wednesday LGBWithTheT, on “shock and disbelief”.
This new rule is indeed written in black and white. Franceinfo consulted the Meta community standards page on Friday, namely “what is and is not allowed on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Threads”. In subcategory “hateful conduct”it is explicitly mentioned that the group authorizes “allegations of mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation, taking into account political and religious discourse on transgenderism and homosexuality and the common, non-serious use of words such as ‘weird’.
Qualify as “bizarre” or “mentally ill” a person because of their sexual orientation or gender identity will therefore be tolerated by the Meta moderation team. This is an exception to the rule, which prohibits insulting people by invoking their mental faculties, because of their race, ethnic or national origin, disability, religious affiliation, caste, serious illness… which Meta considers “protected characteristics” (CP). According to an internal Meta training document, cited by the media The Intercept, saying that “homosexuals are sinners”that the “gays are monsters”which “transgender people are immoral” would also be tolerated, but it would remain forbidden to say that “lesbians are so stupid”.
“It’s a very bad signal and could make things worse. It’s not like Meta has ever been very effective.” in terms of moderation of hate speech, reacts to franceinfo Maud Royer, president of the feminist association Tous des femmes. “Meta employs [dans sa nouvelle politique] the term ‘transgenderism’, which is not the term used by trans communities and medicine [transidentité]. It is the equivalent of ‘transgender ideology’ in France. It’s not a neutral term.”underlines the activist.
Does Meta’s new moderation policy apply to France? The group writes on its site that its “community standards apply to everyone, everywhere and to all types of content”. However, it is specified that users “residing in a country of the European Union” can request the legal removal of content from Facebook or Instagram, if they consider that it violates the hate speech laws in force in their country.
-If this new policy were applied as is in France, it would constitute “a violation of European law and French law”believes Valère Ndior, under the European regulation on digital services, or Digital Services Act (DSA), and article 225-1 of the Penal Code which “prohibits discriminatory behavior based on gender, ethnicity and sexual orientation”. Indeed, the DSA, which has set the obligations of platforms in terms of content moderation since 2024, prohibits them from “show negligence or failure to deal with illegal content” with regard to national law, recalls the law professor.
This change in moderation policy is one of Mark Zuckerberg’s many gestures to curry favor with Donald Trump, elected President of the United States in November. Meta’s conservative turnaround also includes stopping its fact-checking operations in the United States and replacing them with context notes, similar to those used on the social network X.
In a video published Tuesday, the boss of the tech giant said he wanted “end a number of limits on topics, such as immigration and gender, that are no longer in mainstream discourse”. For him, the last election was a “cultural tipping point” giving “priority to freedom of expression”.
“There have frequently been changes to moderation policies at Meta, once or twice a year. This was to comply with requests for regulation by different countries to establish better protection of audiences with ‘protected characteristics'”explains to franceinfo Valère Ndior, professor of public law at the University of Western Brittany. “In my opinion, this is the first time that we have seen a step backwards, a step backwards in this area”he notes.
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