The new social media moderation policy was made official in Portuguese. The decision that loosens the restriction on prejudiced content and ends the checking of potentially false information was made on Tuesday, the 7th, and was only available in English.
Parts of the document allow the free association of homosexuals and transgender people with terms such as “weird” on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads – as long as it is in a “satirical way”. This excerpt appears in the Brazilian version as well.
Furthermore, more norms were translated, such as the one that allows the defense of superiority of gender or religion over others and the allegation of mental illness or abnormality based on gender.
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More guidelines barring publications with exclusionary language about immigration, homosexuality and religion were deleted. In other words, with the current norm, attacks on people or groups are tolerated, for example, “with claims that they have or spread coronavirus”.
The relaxation of the discourse shared by users accompanied the dismissal of the giant’s fact checkers. In practice, Meta ended the policy instituted eight years ago to reduce the spread of misinformation on the network.
Therefore, it is the community’s responsibility to add corrections to publications that may contain false or misleading information. Zuckerberg defended the update: “It’s time to return to our roots regarding freedom of expression.”
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Meta’s recently appointed president of global affairs, Joel Kaplan, also echoed the measure that he claimed served to eliminate excessively restrictive rules on topics of “frequent political debate”.
Attitudes to approach Trump
The end of the moderation policy is just another step closer between Zuckerberg and Donald Trump. Since the Republican won the elections in November, Meta has sought to restore relations with the conservatives. To this end, the billionaire owner of the giant had dinner with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, where he also met with Marco Rubio. A donation of US$1 million for the president’s inauguration was made that night.
Furthermore, there is musical chairs going on in the company. Last week, Republican Joel Kaplan, known for brokering Meta’s relationship with conservatives, was named president of global affairs. On Monday the 6th, Dana White, head of the UFC and close ally of Trump, joined the giant’s board.
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Repercussion in Brazil
After the announcement, politicians, institutions, research centers and experts expressed their opposition to the measure.
More than 60 entities, university research centers and collections around the world signed an open letter reinforcing the need for regulation of social networks that “prioritizes human rights and digital security”.
The Federal Public Ministry (MPF) said it will send a letter to Meta to question the changes in content moderation. The charge takes place within a civil investigation underway since 2021, regarding the responsibility of big techs in the content published by their users.
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The Attorney General’s Office (AGU) also reacted to the changes announced by the company, O, stating that Brazil has legal mechanisms to deal with disinformation and that the government will not allow the online environment to become an unregulated space.
PSOL-SP also spoke out, asking the United Nations (UN) to open an investigation into the company’s decision.
