Meta bosses grilled over decision to cut ‘censorship’ that has potentially unleashed more antisemitic content
Summary
Meta decided in early 2025 to reduce content censorship on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. This change focused on removing only illegal or very serious harmful content, relying more on users to report less serious issues, which may have led to an increase in antisemitic and other offensive content.Key Facts
- In January 2025, Meta announced a policy to reduce censorship and remove factcheckers.
- The policy focused on tackling illegal or very serious violations like terrorism threats and child exploitation.
- Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg said this change would catch less harmful content but reduce accidental removals of innocent posts.
- The royal commission into antisemitism reported concerns that this policy allowed more antisemitic and hateful content.
- Internal Meta guidelines showed some offensive comments were allowed if they were not false claims about specific criminal behavior.
- Meta tries to balance removing hateful content with avoiding over-enforcement that could remove legitimate speech.
- Meta reported a consistent 0.02% rate of hateful content violations since 2022, but the commission noted a steep 79% drop in actions against hateful conduct after the policy change.
- Some users providing evidence to the inquiry were targeted with offensive content on Meta’s platforms.
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