Meta's new guidelines allow users to say LGBT+ people are mentally ill
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Meta's updated hate speech guidelines allow users to call people mentally ill based on their sexuality or gender identity. The guidelines, which were updated on Tuesday, still do not allow Facebook, Instagram or Threads users to insult people based on their mental health - except in this new, specific scenario.
The guidelines now read: "We do allow allegations of mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation, given political and religious discourse about transgenderism and homosexuality and common non-serious usage of words like 'weird'.".
The update to the guidelines came as Meta changed how it moderates speech on its platforms. Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg announced on Tuesday that the company would scrap third party fact checkers, replacing them with a system similar to X's "community notes".
Mr Zuckerberg said the changes were down to "recent elections" and "a cultural tipping point towards, once again, prioritising speech". Rules forbidding insults about a person's appearance based on race, ethnicity, national origin, disability, religious affiliation, caste, sexual orientation, sex, gender identity and serious disease have also been scrapped.
Expressions of hate against a person or a group on the basis of their protected class are also no longer banned on the platform, and neither is referring to transgender or nonbinary people as "it". Read more from Sky News:Driverless taxi passenger gets stuck driving in circlesSoldier who exploded Cybertruck 'used AI to plan attack'Grooming gangs scandal: What happened.
