Meta Reviews Hate Speech Guidelines, To Allow Labelling Of LGBTQ People As Mentally Sick

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, has revised its hate speech guidelines to allow users to describe LGBTQ people as mentally ill.

The change was announced in new guidelines released Tuesday by the media outfit.

The development, which will affect billions of users across its platforms, comes after Meta’s recent decision to end fact-checking on Facebook, replacing it with community notes similar to X’s.

“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,’” Meta’s revised guidelines stated.

Meanwhile, the move has drawn strong criticism from a prominent LGBTQ advocacy group, GLAAD, which condemned the updated guidelines.

Sarah Kate Ellis, GLAAD’s president, said in a statement, “Without these necessary hate speech and other policies, Meta is giving the green light for people to target LGBTQ people, women, immigrants, and other marginalized groups with violence, vitriol, and dehumanizing narratives.”

Ellis added that Meta is continuing to normalize anti-LGBTQ hatred for profit with these changes at the expense of its users and true freedom of expression.