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Latin Times
Latin Times
National
Maryam Khanum

New Facebook 'Free Expression' Policy Allows Users to Call Women 'Objects,' Accuse Gay People of Being 'Mentally Ill'

A Meta spokesperson indicated that the new policies regulating hateful conduct would continue to ban attacks from users on the basis of ethnicity, race and religion (Credit: Photo by Chris Delmas/AFP via Getty Images )

Meta has announced that it will be updating its content moderation systems and policies, removing third-party fact-checking on its platforms as well as removing restrictions on "hateful conduct."

Meta's new policies, announced on Tuesday, will allow users to refer to women as "objects" or "property" online, reported WIRED.

The policies also allow users to use the pronoun "it" when referring to members of the LGBTQ+ community, as well as permitting "allegations of mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation, given political and religious discourse about transgenderism and homosexuality," as reported by WIRED.

"It's not right that things can be said on TV or the floor of Congress, but not on our platforms," Meta's chief global affairs officer, Joel Kaplan, stated in a blog post.

The changes came as Meta's previous rules and regulations were determined to be "out of touch with mainstream discourse," Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained in a video announcement.

Zuckerberg recognized that the new policies meant "that we're going to catch less bad stuff, but we'll also reduce the number of innocent people's posts and accounts that we accidentally take down."

A Meta spokesperson told CNN that the new policies regulating hateful conduct would continue to ban attacks from users on the basis of ethnicity, race and religion, and will also continue to ban the use of slurs on the company's platforms.

At a press conference on Tuesday, President-elect Donald Trump commended Meta for their new policies.

"I watched their news conference, and I thought it was a very good news conference. I think they've, honestly, I think they've come a long way. Meta. Facebook. I think they've come a long way. I watched it, the man was very impressive," Trump said in response to a question from CNN's Steve Contorno.

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