DEI, fact-checkers, and Dana White

Ahead of President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg dramatically steered the company to the right last week with a series of policy and practice changes that have angered some employees, users and Interest group dissatisfaction.

Zuckerberg said some changes to Meta's fact-checking and moderation systems are aimed at curbing censorship and protecting free speech on its platforms, including Instagram and Facebook, but the scale of the changes goes far beyond social media moderation, according to reports It touches on Meta's internal policies surrounding its bathrooms and boardrooms, as well as the optional aesthetic themes it previously deployed on one of its platforms to celebrate transgender people.

These are all the changes Meta rolled out last week.

Community annotations replace third-party fact checkers

Last Tuesday, Meta announced that it would scrap its old fact-checking system and replace it with one similar to X Community Annotations, which will be rolled out starting in the United States in the coming months.

Meta's fact-checking system, launched in 2016, works by running feeds across its platform from certified third-party fact-checkers who identify posts that appear to be misinformation. However, Zuckerberg said fact-checkers are “so politically biased that they destroy more trust than they create.”

Under the new community comments system, users will be able to write and rate comments that can be added to posts, which can provide additional context that may be missing from the original. In a press release announcing the changes, Mehta said that for a note to pop up “requires consensus among people with different perspectives” to help eliminate potential bias.

Republicans have frequently expressed support for X's community annotation system; many have previously criticized Meta's fact-checking system because they believed it disproportionately targeted right-wing content. However, research tells a different story, showing that conservatives tend to share more misinformation, which in turn attracts moderation actions. Those opposed to Meta's changes worry they will allow misinformation to flourish on its platform.

Zuckerberg explained in a Facebook video that Meta will also change its enforcement policies, saying flaws in the previous system were responsible for the “vast majority of censorship” on its platform. He said the new filtering system will specifically target illegal and “higher severity” violations, while “lower severity violations” will be addressed through a new community comments system, where users will need to comment on posts that may lack context or Proactively report when erroneous information may be included.

The announcement received mixed reactions.

Many Meta employees expressed concern about the decision to end third-party fact-checking. One employee wrote on the company's internal communications tool Workplace that they were “extremely concerned” about the decision, adding that Meta seemed to be “sending a bigger, stronger message to people that facts no longer matter and will It’s conflated with victory” for free speech. “

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva called the decision “extremely serious” and the country's attorney general said “legal and legal action” could be taken against Meta if it did not explain its new fact-checking measures. judicial measures”.

Many on the right applauded the new system. Fox News reporter Brooke Singleman reported that Trump responded by saying Meta had “come a long way.” SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk similarly praised the changes, writing “This is cool” on X.

More political content

In a video posted last Tuesday, Zuckerberg said Meta wanted to welcome the return of political discourse on Facebook, Instagram and Threads.

“We're restoring citizen content,” Zuckerberg said in the video. “For a while, the community asked for less political content because it was stressful for people, so we stopped recommending those posts. But it feels like we're in a new era now, and we're starting to get feedback from people that they want to see this content again. “

He added that the recent election had a significant impact on the company's decision to change its fact-checking system and work to “prioritize speech.” He added that it planned to work closely with the incoming Trump administration to “counter the efforts of governments around the world to go after U.S. companies and push for increased scrutiny.”

“The only way we can reverse this global trend is with the support of the U.S. government, which is why the last four years have been so difficult, even with the U.S. government pushing for censorship,” Zuckerberg said.

In 2021, before Meta began reducing political content, a Brookings Institution study found that conservative-leaning podcasters sharing “false and misleading content” typically attracted more than 28 million followers on Facebook and Twitter.

Loosen rules on anti-LGBTQ speech and end Meta's diversity program

Meta notified employees through an internal communications forum on Friday that it would be ending a number of programs aimed at recruiting diverse candidates, including disbanding its diversity, equity and inclusion team and eliminating its “diversity slate approach” to the hiring process.

The New York Times also reported that two Meta employees said that Meta's offices in Silicon Valley, Texas and New York were instructed to remove tampons from men's restrooms that were for the company. Available to non-binary and transgender employees.

404 Media reports that Meta has removed non-binary and trans themes from its Messenger app. The app's “Themes” feature allows users to change the design and colors of chats, with “Trans” and “Non-binary” themes featuring the colors of each trans and non-binary flag. Meta has launched two themes to celebrate Pride Month, with a trans theme in June 2021 and a non-binary theme next year.

Meta has also updated its “hateful conduct” policy, now allowing posts that call LGBTQ people mentally ill.

“Given political and religious rhetoric about transgenderism and homosexuality and the common non-serious use of words like 'weird,' we do allow allegations of mental illness or abnormality based on gender or sexual orientation,” the policy reads.

Under the hateful conduct policy, users can post content about “gender-based restrictions in the military, law enforcement, and teaching jobs,” as well as use “sex or gender-exclusionary language” to describe “access to spaces typically restricted by sex or gender.” Gender, such as bathroom access, specific schools, specific military, law enforcement or teaching roles, and health or support groups. “

Zuckerberg said in a video posted to Facebook that Meta would “simplify content policies on topics like gender and immigration.”

“What started as a movement to be more inclusive is now increasingly being used to silence opinions and shut out people who think differently, and that has gone too far,” he said. “I want to make sure that People can share their beliefs and experiences on our platform.”

Joel Kaplan, Meta's chief global affairs officer, similarly told Fox News that its previous system was “too restrictive” when it came to “sensitive topics like immigration, transgender issues and gender.”

High-profile departures and new hires

Former British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has announced that he will step down this month from his role as Meta's president of global affairs after nearly seven years. Kaplan, a Republican who once served as White House deputy chief of staff, has taken over the role.

Longtime Trump ally Dana White, chief executive of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, will also join Meta's board, along with John Elkann, chief executive of Italian auto holding company Exor. ) and former Microsoft strategy chief Charlie Songhurst.

In Meta's press release, White said he was “not interested in joining the board” before being offered a position on Meta's board. 404 Media reports that Meta employees responded to news of his joining on Workplace with criticism and jokes, and the company's internal community relations team deemed the posts to be in violation of the company's “community engagement expectations” and removed them.

On the day Meta announced it would be ending its diversity program, Roy Austin, vice president for civil rights and deputy general counsel, announced his resignation on Facebook.

Jobs in red status

Zuckerberg also said Meta's trust, safety and content moderation teams would be moving from California to Texas.

“As we work to promote free speech, I think it will help build trust so that we can do this work from a place where there's less concern about bias on our team,” he said.

After the news was announced, former Meta employees wrote on the social media platform Bluesky and Meta's own platform Threads that Meta already has a trust and safety audit team in Austin, Texas.

In July, Musk also moved the headquarters of SpaceX and X from California to Texas. That same month, the U.S. Supreme Court sent back to lower courts a case that challenged the constitutionality of laws in Texas and Florida aimed at regulating the content moderation practices of social media companies.