Statement about Meta’s policy changes
Reason Digital's Statement on Meta's policy changes
Statement about Meta’s policy changes
13 January 2025, Manchester, UK
For Immediate Release:
In December 2024, Mark Zuckerberg said he seeks an “active role” in shaping tech policy in the upcoming Trump administration. This week, we saw the first sign of how he intends to do that by revising Meta’s hate speech guidelines.
He intends to lead by adopting the language and principles of right-wing populism, from removing the term “hate speech” in favour of “hateful conduct” and adopting terms such as transgenderism (a term derived from the anti-trans movement to dehumanise trans people by implying being trans is an ideology rather than an identity) and homosexuality (an outdated term that pathologises LGBTQIA+ people). The proposed changes will make Meta products such as Facebook, Instagram, and Threads unsafe for users and advertisers alike.
Some of the changes to this policy:
- Allow dehumanising language, including referring to “women as household objects or property” and to trans people as “it.”
- Explicitly allow comments referring to “mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation” and to deny the existence of certain groups.
- Allow for discussion around exclusion or using “insulting language” when discussing “transgender rights, immigration or homosexuality.”
- Allow arguing for the exclusion of people by sex or gender from “military, law enforcement, and teaching jobs” and from “access to bathrooms, specific schools… and health or support groups.
The changes above outline a dangerous precedent that gives way to violence, harassment, hate speech and misinformation.
A Meta spokesperson has said the policy change would continue to ban attacks from users on the basis of ethnicity, race and religion but history has shown much of the hate speech around immigration to focus on those exact characteristics, and there is little information around how this will be handled.
The new policy also removes Meta’s acknowledgement that hate speech “creates an environment of intimidation and exclusion, and in some cases may promote offline violence.” Events around the UK after the Southport stabbing in July last year would suggest more than ever the existence of this link.
Reason Digital’s co-founder Ed Cox said:
“As an LGBTQIA+ owned organisation that aims to create a safe working environment for people from all backgrounds to bring their full selves to work, we cannot condone this rolling back of protection from harm for already marginalised groups.
Not only are Meta's changes contrary to our values and policies as an organisation, but they go against basic human rights of dignity, security, freedom from discrimination and recognition as a person.
We support free speech, but the truth is that genuine free speech on social media is only available to some, usually those who are already the most empowered. Elon Musk has previously labelled the words "cis" and "cisgendered" as "hate speech" on X, despite also saying he's a free speech absolutist. As such, moves like Meta's policy change are curtailment of certain freedoms masquerading as freedom of speech.
For too long, social media platforms have not done enough to protect people's safety, but this latest move from Mark Zuckerberg openly invites individuals, institutions and organised groups to be divisive, hostile and hateful with impunity and puts Facebook, Instagram and Threads firmly in line with the behaviour allowed and encouraged by Elon Musk on X.”
This policy change currently applies only in the US, but it sets a dangerous precedent. Powerful social media platforms with millions – even billions – of users have a responsibility to ensure the safety of their users rather than to empower and encourage hate speech, intimidation and violence against the most vulnerable people.
If Elon Musk succeeds with his plan of destabilising the EU and dismantling its legal protections against overreach from big tech companies, we can expect this kind of policy change to be adopted around the world.
Mr Cox continued:
“This policy change is not just a threat to already marginalised people, it risks radicalising many more people through the normalisation of hate speech, misinformation and disinformation.
We can no longer be complicit in this societal race to the bottom.”
- As such, we will cease activity on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads and will only retain an account to carry out work on behalf of clients who continue to use those platforms. We will begin reviewing our position on working with Meta-owned client data with the Leadership Team.
- We will no longer actively recommend Meta’s platforms in discussions with clients, in our marketing or in our training, presentations or workshops. Our final post will explain our standpoint and our reasons for quitting. We will remove all links to Meta-owned platforms from our website, including any sharing links that still exist.
- While not part of this policy change, Meta also owns WhatsApp. We will review whether there are more suitable alternatives for tasks such as conducting user research and organising focus groups, etc., and for internal, company-based chats.
Our intention is not to curb our employees’ right to free speech or their preferred online communication methods, so this only applies to Reason Digital’s official accounts. We’re not expecting our employees to give up anything they use for personal use.
Read Meta’s Community Standards for “Hateful Conduct” here:
https://transparency.meta.com/en-gb/policies/community-standards/hateful-conduct/
Read GLAAD’s response to Meta’s policy changes:
https://glaad.org/releases/meta-removes-anti-lgbtq-hate-speech-policies-ends-fact-checking/
For comment and further information, please contact us at hello@reasondigital.com
ENDS
UPDATE 16.01.2025
We have received an outpouring of positive feedback from our clients and partners about our statement on Monday 13th of January 2025. However, a few of our partners have been in touch asking to clarify our stance on supporting them with Meta products (Facebook, Instagram and Threads).
To be clear, Reason Digital will only cease its operations on Meta products (Facebook, Instagram and Theads) on its own company pages. Furthermore, our Leadership team has decided to also cease operations on X (Twitter). However, our mission is to support charities with their digital needs; so we need to continue to support our charity partners where they are and where they need to be supported, including on Meta Business Manager and X Business Manager. We always aim to see the bigger picture and we understand that some of our charity partners have stakeholders, beneficiaries and service users using Meta and X products, so can’t stop using their products.
We want to keep talking about it, and how we can make the digital world a fairer and more inclusive place. If you’d like to discuss this more, please do get in touch at hello@reasondigital.com