UltraViolet Action Condemns Meta’s Move to Gut Fact-Checking Program, Warns of Implications for Women and Trans People
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, January 8, 2024
CONTACT: Brett Abrams | brett@unbendablemedia.com
Yesterday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a set of changes to the tech giant’s content moderation policies. Central to these changes are Meta’s elimination of their fact-checking system and major updates to their Hateful Conduct Policy that remove protections for women and trans people. Meta’s content moderation approach is now set to resemble X’s Community Notes, according to Zuckerberg.
In reaction to the announcement, Jenna Sherman, Campaign Director focused on tech and gender at UltraViolet, a leading national gender justice organization, which has worked with Meta and other tech companies to improve content moderation policies, issued the following statement:
“Meta’s fact-checking system was deployed in 2016, at a time when Facebook was criticized for facilitating the spread of disinformation leading up to and in the wake of Donald Trump’s first election win. That system has operated for eight years in partnership with the International Fact-Checking Network, through which 10 fact-checking partners in the U.S and hundreds of fact-check organizations in about 119 countries are contracted with Meta to review and rate content for Meta.
“This program will no longer be in place, and at least the U.S. contracts will be compromised, impacting countless jobs and the entire online ecosystem to uphold information integrity. But it’s not just the implementation arm that’s changing, it’s the policies themselves.
“Just a few of the changes to Meta’s Hateful Conduct Policy include the allowance of ‘allegations of mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation,’ the allowance of referring to women or nonbinary people as inanimate objects or property, the allowance of social and economic exclusion of women and LGBTQ+ people, and the use of the hateful term “transgenderism” and outdated term “homosexuality” to refer to trans and LGBTQ+ people.
“In all, this policy overhaul provides a carte blanche to bad actors on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads to intimidate, harass, mislead, disinform, discriminate against, and enact violence against women and gender-expansive people.
“Already, women, trans people, and nonbinary people are the most likely groups to be targeted with online harassment, including on Meta, which was failing to adequately implement its former policies aiming to protect marginalized groups. That disparity is about to sharply widen. Zuckerberg spoke in his statement about how these policy changes are intended to mitigate censorship and expand speech. But of course, we know who will continue to be censored – at the very least self-censored out of fear – and whose speech will be allowed to flourish.
“Finally, the political message is crystal clear: Mark Zuckerberg and his company are taking the opposite approach as they did in 2016; now, rather than signaling their care about information integrity and objectivity, they are signaling their willingness to acquiesce to political powers that could benefit them monetarily at the expense of information integrity and objectivity. Vulnerable users will suffer as a result, and we intend to continue to advocate for their protection.”
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