- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.world
- ghazi@lemmy.blahaj.zone
- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.world
- ghazi@lemmy.blahaj.zone
Meta announced a series of major updates to its content moderation policies today, including ending its fact-checking partnerships and “getting rid” of restrictions on speech about “topics like immigration, gender identity and gender” that the company describes as frequent subjects of political discourse and debate. “It’s not right that things can be said on TV or the floor of Congress, but not on our platforms,” Meta’s newly appointed chief global affairs officer, Joel Kaplan, wrote in a blog post outlining the changes.
In an accompanying video, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg described the company’s current rules in these areas as “just out of touch with mainstream discourse.”
In tandem with this announcement, the company made a number of updates across its Community Guidelines, an extensive set of rules that outline what kinds of content are prohibited on Meta’s platforms, including Instagram, Threads, and Facebook. Some of the most striking changes were made to Meta’s “Hateful Conduct” policy, which covers discussions on immigration and gender.
In a notable shift, the company now says it allows “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.’”
In other words, Meta now appears to permit users to accuse transgender or gay people of being mentally ill because of their gender expression and sexual orientation. The company did not respond to requests for clarification on the policy.
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I’m trans. I do have mental illness. It’s because society keeps sending me signals that I shouldn’t exist.
For what it’s worth, I am hereby sending you the official signal that you should absolutely exist, that you have every right to be yourself, and that your continued existence is important and meaningful for yourself and others in similar situations especially. I hope you will forever be gifted with the courage to be yourself, even when the world is challenging you on it.
It’s the village, not the individuals. Our society is fucking sick. I’m straight, but it (the intolerance and violence towards people who are different) makes me sick.
This person gets it.
Thank you.
You listen to society? They’re the ones that invented gender characteristics and stereotypes. If you listen to them there’s a chance you’ll get caught up in their bullshit instead of just being what you’d be if there was no other human on earth.
Kind of hard not to listen to society when you’re a part of it. It’s like saying to try to not listen to the music while you’re at a nightclub.
I’d like out of this nightclub. Maybe move to a different, more pleasant nightclub.
I understand that are trying to be nice, but it’s kinda rude tbh. Because you are making it seem like the problems they have aren’t actually real. They might not have an alternative nightclub to go to because all of them are shit, or they can’t go to another nightclub.
I disagree, it can be read like that but I feel it’s clear that’s not what they meant. I think there not being a different nightclub to go to is implied, didn’t even think it could have been meant another way before I read your comment.
Oh, my apologies. That wasn’t my intention at all.
I fully sympathise with not feeling like you belong in this society, I feel that way too. I’ve always felt that way. Sadly, I think precious few people are able to actually function and live separate from society, it requires a lot of means (money, mostly) that most people simply don’t have. We can’t choose to walk away from society, and so we’re forced to live and operate inside of it.
The problems are very much real, and to me it feels like the best solution would be a new society rather than conforming to the BS we have to be in. That’s just a pipe dream, though.
You’re good, IMO, it’s clear you didn’t imply that they can just “move to another nightclub” and that not being able to is what you actually implied. Seen that exact comparison before with life being a loud nightclub and there are no others to go to.
Is gender dysphoria not considered a health issue?? Legit asking. Like I thought the whole point of transitioning is that that is the treatment for it. That’s not a BAD thing, but it is A thing. Calling gay people mentally ill is obviously non sense. Calling ALL trans people mentally ill I don’t think is accurate… if they’ve actually transitioned lmao. Then they’re not sick anymore ?? Plz let me know if that take is incorrect. Feel like having pre-transition gender dysphoria compared to other mental illnesses like anxiety/depression/etc is a positive thing because it normalizes it to a degree.
Big difference between them being… there IS actually a cure to gender dysphoria compared to many other mental illnesses that can only be treated. Arguing with a right winger about this shit, he said he felt bad for trans people and that they were mentally ill. My response was “yeah no shit, you realize the way to reduce their risk of suicide is by letting them get the care they and their doctors deem necessary. It’s straight cruelty to acknowledge that it is something they need help with yet demonizing them for seeking help.”
Guess the people saying shit like the headline aren’t doing so with nuance in mind, and for them anyone trans at all = weird/mentally ill/sick.
The whole thing with trans health is that being trans is not considered a mental illness but gender dysphoria still has a diagnostic rubric and has health problems associated. So saying trans people who have transitioned aren’t sick anymore isn’t quite accurate because they were never considered sick in the first place. One of the ideas behind this way of thinking is a trans person’s issues aren’t caused because they are trans, it’s caused largely due to the lack of acceptance and support in the society around trans people. Framing transness as a mental illness also ignores the flipside of dysphoria - gender euphoria which is a very specific joy experienced by trans people expressing themselves healthily, it’s not simply from lessening pain around dysphoria, it’s basically something mostly unique to the trans experience that is overwhelmingly positive.
Also there’s not a one size fits all response to dysphoria. Some chose to physically transition and others choose to use other management techniques to help. There isn’t a “cure” to gender dysphoria. There are limits to what can be achieved through physical transition even if one goes all the way. One can have dysphoria around stuff like not having periods and child bearing capabilities even if they are fully transitioned or there are things that are irreversible if the transition happens too late. Being trans can be a kind of complicated state of being where one needs to learn and implement how best to be supported. Framing it not as an illness removes the stigma of looking at the experience entirely clinically as something to be solved. The fix isn’t to be “less trans” as it is when one approaches something as a disorder to be removed and minimized.
What trump wants to do to trans people is the equivalent of lobotomizing everyone with bipolar disorder because you don’t believe the accepted treatments work.
Gender dyspohoria is a mental health condition the same way ADHD is. Do you run around calling people with ADHD mentally ill? No. And, gender dysphoria is one of the easiest neurodivergent conditions to treat. You let the person be the gender they already know they are. Doing anything else may as well be lobotomizing them. It’s unacceptable and creates more problems. Plus it’s fucking cruel.
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Gotta have an out group for the in group to vilify and all that :| I do get your point about calling someone with any kind of mental illness “mentally ill”. That does feel rude. It’s “technically correct*” but that doesn’t make it less rude.
From googling 23% of US adults (assumed because current empire. Even being a US citizen, having some knowledge of history I can’t blame people in other countries hoping/plotting to knock Hamburgerland down a few pegs because that’s what happens, and we are absolutely past the zenith of American dominance) have a diagnosed mental illness. Lotta folks probably are undiagnosed. As is consistent with history, even in this golden era of mental health awareness, trans people are being othered. I would be curious to see some graphs of trans folk being mentioned in newspapers/magazines since the 1920s as a ratio of printed pieces.
Is gender dysphoria not considered a health issue […] Feel like having pre-transition gender dysphoria compared to other mental illnesses like anxiety/depression/etc is a positive thing because it normalizes it to a degree.
There’s an inherent problem of definitions here:
Consider: does the DSM classify transgender as a mental disorder? Hard to say. It includes 302.85: Gender Dysphoria, defined as “a marked incongruence between one’s experienced/expressed gender and assigned gender”. It also includes approximately one million caveats saying that transgender definitely isn’t a mental disorder. Why the contradiction? Because regardless of the philosophical definition of mental disorder, the practical definition is:
- If you call something a mental disorder, insurance has to cover treatment for it, which is good.
- But if you call something a mental disorder, people will accuse you of trying to stigmatize them, which is bad.
The DSM writers are trans-friendly and want to make sure trans people can get the care they need (for example, in most states, people need a psych evaluation before they can get gender affirmation surgery), so they want to force insurance companies to cover transgender, so they have to include it. But they also don’t want to stigmatize trans people, so they also include a lot of paragraphs about how even though they just listed it as a mental disorder, it definitely isn’t a mental disorder.
You pretty much have it right. Many-to-most trans people will suffer from or experience gender dysphoria to varying degrees, which is treated with hormone replacement therapy, transitioning, surgery, psychotherapy, etc… Once trans people are at a state where they feel comfortable with their bodies (or achieve a congruence between their inner and outer selves), then gender dysphoria is technically no longer present, but may return if the body or the mind changes and are no longer congruent.
Medically, this means that trans people can have an official diagnosis of gender dysphoria and get treatment for it. Gender dysphoria then goes away (hopefully) and preventative treatment like HRT continues.
Trans people can obviously also have mental disorders unrelated to being trans.
Edit: To clarify, neither being trans nor experiencing gender dysphoria are mental disorders. Gender dysphoria is listed in the DSM-5 in order for proper treatment by health professionals and for insurance coverage.
My thoughts exactly. As an outsider looking in, how would you classify gender dysphoria other than an illness?
It’s treatable, just not the way religious fanatics want to.
I would classify it as a neurodivergent condition.
Do you call people with ADHD mentally ill?
So what is a condition if not an illness? Can you have a beneficial medical condition? Maybe it’s because English is my second language, but this is part of the confusion.
Well, technically they are. It’s a detrimental neurological condition. It doesn’t to my knowledge benefit a person to have untreated ADHD. Or as they say, a untreated mental illnessl. I don’t much care for the padding of language, rather I would remove the stigma by using the term without judgement.
I think i’m seeing it as a classification tree, i could see Illness branching off to mental illness and then there would be an immense amount of mental illnesses. Somewhere there neuro divergence would be and perhaps ADHD under there.
Calling anyone with a mental health disorder these days is considered extremely rude to begin with. Also, at least in America, people with a condition like ADHD or Autism aren’t considered mentally ill, they’re considered neurodivergent. Which is a term with a much nicer connontation than would be used for someone with bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. Yes, it’s all semantics, but if you’re going to be talking to people with these conditions, the semantics matter. Don’t call trans people mentally ill. Hell don’t call anyone mentally ill. It’s like calling someone with downs syndrome the r-slur.
I’m not calling anybody anything. You misunderstand my point. Being rude is different from differentiating from the technical categorization of words. They are both. Neuro divergent is a category of mental illness.
I wouldn’t call anybody mentally ill, cause it is too simplistic and rude. But it still is what the word means.
Lmaooooo exactly how that convo went with that guy. “Yes theyre sick but think about all the people who transitioned before they were adults who regret it… I am going to focus on those people and ignore how 95% of cases the person doesn’t regret it.”
98% don’t regret it and those who do overwhemingly onlu regret it because of how society treats them.
I didn’t know that “how society treats them” with the regret part o.o can you source on that for future reference
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Society can get fucked. You’re valid. Normal people want you here.
It’s our current iteration of society that shouldn’t exist.
It’s also his first mammalian penis
Do we not get to count all the foreskins he’s eaten?
cool it with the anti-semitism
Isn’t that pro-semitism?
Possibly, either way I’m taking the piss.
lol as is tradition
You can now refer to women as property on Facebook and they are A-OK with that! But you will, and it has happened to me, catch an instant ban if you say all men are trash.
Maybe it’s just me but I don’t think people should be saying or be allowed to say either of those two things. Neither of those two things are good for anyone.
I suppose that was ops point
In the context I said it myself it was because of Trump the rapist. I am very tired of women being raped and everything that comes with conservatives normalizing it.
I think people should be able to say whatever bs they want to, but their identity should be attached to it.
Okay, whats your name, ip address, address, social security number …
That’s fine, I just choose to share last. Same as gun control. Every other entity needs to be disarmed. Every fucking government and billionaire too. Then I’m good with sharing everything.
I’ll bite. Meta, obviously, never actually cared about free speech. Zuckerberg also said that they are about to flood the platforms with AI bots to increase engagement. I’d say getting rid of fact checkers is only to avoid having their own bots automatically brought down by their own moderation. The rest is a façade
Astute observation. I’m glad I stopped using the platform years ago but it seems like they’re focused on trying to innovate their tech more than the actual engagement.
More exploitation of the seniors who are the few people left
Reminder to get off Facebook and Instagram
This isn’t the first time they’ve pulled stuff like this nor will it be the last
Meta went all in on the VR Metaverse to woo the next generation and just shot themselves in the foot.
VR Metaverse would have worked if they let people have legs.
Meta would not have liked WHY it would have worked, however…
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Facebook has about 3 billion users across the globe. That’s just 500 million short of half the human population of the planet. At its height Twitter was around 360 million. And it’s user base has only shrunk by 30 million or so since the douche bag took it over.
Facebook, on the other hand, has dug its hooks into everyone’s personal lives to a point at which getting them to ditch Facebook would be like telling everyone to basically ditch their friends and family. No one is going to do that.
Twitter was an add-on. It was an extra. You could use it or not, nobody cared. It hadn’t built a large enough user base to be so integral to people’s social lives. TikTok, in about half the time twitter has existed, has basically eclipsed it in terms of monthly active users.
We have to accept this fact, Facebook has become an institution. And it should scare literally everyone that such a huge and powerful platform is owned by one single person with no real oversight whatsoever. That is why he was able to unilaterally decide to first censor Facebook at the beginning of the election and now uncensor it once an oligarch friendly president has been elected.
Everyone’s so focused on DElon Husk’s role in getting Trump elected, but all Zuckerberg needed to do was shut down the discourse on his platform so that the news couldn’t flow. And now he’s adopting the policies of Xwitter in an effort to win some favoritism from the incoming administration.
So, what is your solution, given the facts and the reality of the matter?
There is none currently. You’re free to continue to advocate dropping Meta products, but don’t hold your breath. Ideally we would have some kind of government intervention to break up the monopoly that is Meta or some form of regulation to reign in their behavior, but none of our politicians care to bother and unfortunately, with the party coming into power in our government, there’s little hope any kind of regulation on any monopolistic corporations. With our last election the American people have chosen to package themselves up and give themselves over to the corporate overlords.
So what you’re saying is, There Is No Alternative?
There is disruptive behavior.
I ditched facebook. Just means my friends and family have to call me. And if they don’t, fuck em.
Businesses need to bring back email newsletters. And whatever celebrities or whatnot you care about need to too. The only reason I signed back up for either of those sites was to follow a local business for updates/sales/etc.
Reminder to get off Facebook and Instagram
Most of us are already out or lurking because of family or some specific group they can’t do without.
The trick will be getting those people off the platform so we can cut all cords.
Excuses…
Yeah the answer is to delete your account and find alternative messengers for people you actually care about. Others that care will follow.
Have a gander folks.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook#Criticisms_and_controversies
Religion is a mental illness.
Preach! But you know, not really.
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What a wild comparison. One is based off scientific facts and one is purely based on the supernatural. Literal opposites
Are you saying transactivism declares some people evil? How is that activism different from all other queer activism and does that also declare people evil? Is the belief in a soul part of any of that? Am I missing your point?
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That trans people exist, while god doesn’t.
Well you piqued my interest, where can i find these trans liturgy you speak of ? In a trans church? Or should i go to a woke cathedral? But seriously, what a pityfull comment you made. You could at least try to explain what you mean by false dichotomie before screaming about whatever strawman your comment is about. When did “trans activism” declared somebody irredeemably evil? (And did they deserved it?) And why are you talking about souls? Is this your way of understanding gender dysphoria?
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Jk rowling is really not a good example of “unfair” accusations she literally denied that trans people where targeted by nazi
I think JK Rowling is an example of a person who should’ve stayed the fuck out of Twitter. There might be some debate on what kind of a person she was before starting to engage people in Twitter, but I don’t think there’s any doubt that it made her worse in every possible way.
That she has been unable to let it go is the same kind of tragedy as when somebody succumbs to a narcotic and thus becomes a destructive asshole. Was the drug the reason for that individual to become an asshole or was he an asshole in soul and the drug just brought it to the surface?
Sure ? i dont see the link with what you were saying before…
People deem JK evil because she’s a generally terrible, hateful person. On the other hand, religion deems an entire group of people as evil regardless of what they’ve done in their life. A woman likes a woman? Straight to hell according to them. They could cure cancer and still straight to hell (which is where JK stands with trans people)
And don’t forget before gay marriage was legalized, they stated that anyone who married outside their race was going straight to hell.
The religious “right” makes up a new enemy every 30-40 years when the group they were targeting gets legally recognized civil rights.
Trans people will get full rights as well. It’s just gonna take a couple decades and us fighting like hell. JK rowling is on the wrong side of history and will be viewed as such in a few decades. Shame she wasted her legacy
“It’s not right that things can be said on TV or the floor of Congress, but not on our platforms,” Meta’s newly appointed chief global affairs officer, Joel Kaplan, wrote in a blog post outlining the changes.
This is the same Joel Kaplan that participated in the brooks brothers riot stopping the recount of the ballots during the bush v gore election in 2000 where the republicans stole the election forever changing the course of American history.
I stopped letting Meta take my attention once they started making my feed fill itself with “reccomended” “you might like” pages and profiles that I at no point ever clicked on or searched for.
before, my feed was exclusively my friends content, and pages I followed.
now, they fill the gaps with evangelicals, gambling, and idiots posting chinese and russian war propaganda.
yup, get the fuck out. im done.
My entire feed is just nonsense now. Last year a guy I knew from my Warcraft days had cancer while a relative in Canada had a baby.
They both posted these things on Facebook.
What Facebook showed me was constant spam, so now I just see chess puzzle channels from India, street cooking videos from places with no hygiene laws, magic eye pictures and retro games. I’ve never asked it for any of these things, yet some algorithm detected I paused for a millisecond while scrolling past them so now that’s all I get. Fuck the people I know, right?
It used to be useful for exactly one thing and it can’t even do that any more. The only way you can actually see a proper feed without spam is to go into a person/group’s profile directly.
I decided I was going to discontinue using Meta products except to put out an occasional Instagram photo, pushed to Facebook, to tell…people I don’t even talk to anymore, and for good reason…that I was alive and a sight of what I was doing. I discontinued my old Facebook profile and made a new one only for this purpose.
Because Facebook kind of sees me as a new user, I’m able to see content I wasn’t able to before. And fuck, that place feels like some weird scam and bot flea market.
I hope it’s soon to die but who knows if it’ll transform into some unmasked arm of the government for surveillance.
I use the website / app for exactly one purpose, marketplace. buy and sell shit.
I still have messenger for work purposes, as well as some family and friends. but the “Feed”. the status updates, Fuck no. burn it all.
And you can’t even browse marketplace on the mobile site. It wants you to install their app.
And you get ads for anything you look up on Marketplace.
Oh it’s a complete ghost town. Absolutely useless as actual social media. I suppose you could try starring/favoriting all your friends lol…
Presumably they’ll roll back their censorship of Palestinian journalists now they love free speech so much.
you see, free speech is only for reactionaries.
That’s pretty much what conservative/right-wing ‘freedom’ is: freedom for me but not for thee.
He praised X, a competitor, in his video announcement. I guess Musk was right. “Zuck is a cuck.”
Let’s be honest, they already allow rampant, dangerous misinformation, bullying, and hate speech. They’re just being a little more honest about it, now.
The mask has slipped because they know they can get away with it.
After all,this isn’t anything forced on Meta, they are taking advantage of the incoming president being all for this and binning policies they clearly only follower reluctantly (and poorly).
I don’t think it’s a mask, I think they’re signaling and competing for favor. The timing is obvious.
Don’t forget that they will actively defend hate speech and overly police the opposite because their moderators aren’t moderated. They have literal priests dictating what is considered misoginy and homophobia ffs (True story).
People need to stop using Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads, and Instagram.
I wrote my deletion post just a few hours ago actually. Cited sexism, homophobia, anti-immigration, no more fact-checking etc. I said I’d leave the account up for a few days in case anyone wanted to arrange a way to stay in contact (since I’ve had friends there since 2007), but after that I’m gone.
I remember back in 2017 or so when I left Facebook and did the same, only a handful arranged to keep contact otherwise. Ever since if I’ve met anyone from those years by accident, they’ve been very bitter that I just left them and didn’t stay in contact.
So just kind of a warning here, not everyone will be normal about it. It’s truly weird since I did the same; left a clear announcement I’d leave and hoped those interested would get in touch to figure out another way. Still so many, even after so many years, can feel betrayed and hurt because of that.
Thanks for the heads up. I can see how that would happen. In my case I posted literally once or twice a year since 2020 or so, and the last time I talked to anyone other than family was 6 months ago. I have several dozen “friends” that will see the post, but leaving likely won’t affect much other than them being able to see photographs on FB/Instagram. Everyone I actually interact with knows other ways to contact me.
Cite this article before you go.
I cannot believe how brave you are. It takes a lot of courage to quit post on facebook then report to Lemmy that you quit posted on Facebook.
It was directly related to the post above. “People should do this” -> “I actually just finished doing that.” It’s not like I came here to brag out of nowhere. Why are you ignoring that in favor of picking a fight?
WhatsApp
Buddy, I fucking wish I could, but I need it because it is the de facto communication method in Brazil.
I feel you bro
That sucks, get people to switch to signal or telegram.
Easier said than done. I couldn’t get even my mom on telegram, which is “the same thing”. For work, simply not possible, I don’t call the shots.
They won’t.
Facebook, Instagram and Threads are easy, I was never on Threads and largely used the others for following people and groups rather than actively posting.
WhatsApp is the tricky one as all my friends and family are on there and it is pretty important. I could get some people to move to Matrix but not everyone. Luckily, it’s the one that is the most difficult to enshittify. Still…
Get the WhatsApp crowd on signal. It takes like 30 seconds.
Meta is bad, but why leave WhatsApp? No ads, no moderation, no interference.
Data collection and why on earth should we trust them after all we’ve seen?
It’s painless to swap. Signal takes seconds to setup and can comb through your contacts just as easily while being infinitely more secure and trustworthy. It’s not like leaving one major social media platform for another and having to deal with the friction of swapping.
I’m with you on Signal. Problem is most of WhatsApp users see Telegram, not Signal, as an alternative because it had more coverage over time, while Signal had zero.
Yup! When I announced I’d leave WhatsApp back in the day, even my (old) parents and some (even older) relatives proceeded to download signal just to stay in touch with me.
Sure, I miss some news or announcements that they share in the big WhatsApp groups, but mostly I’m as up to date as everyone.
Most of my friends did the same, but I noticed my age group (and younger) seem more adaptable here and very quickly figured everything out, and we got some groups entirely moved there. I suppose they feel okay having multiple apps for one thing, as opposed to the older gens, who struggle to learn one thing properly and try their best to just stick with it until eternity.
Haven’t missed WhatsApp a bit, it was the least impactful of all of the meta suite (and others) I left behind back in 2017(?) or so.
Guillotine Luigi.
What did Mario bros do to deserve such fate
“getting rid” of restrictions on speech about “topics like immigration, gender identity and gender” that the company describes as frequent subjects of political discourse and debate. “It’s not right that things can be said on TV or the floor of Congress, but not on our platforms,”
Yet when my mom tried to post about a museum visit, Facebook wouldn’t let her because it contained the word “Lenin”. Interesting.
Can you elaborate?
Someone with a Facebook account wanna go make a post with Lenin and see if another account can view it lmao
Not much to elaborate here, the situation was what I described above. As for how this is relevant to the post, I feel like Meta/Facebook has also jumped on the “free speech for me but not for thee” bandwagon.
https://archive.ph/2NpvC non-paywalled link
