Meta, the parent company of Instagram, Facebook, and Threads, under the leadership of CEO Mark Zuckerberg, has overhauled its content moderation policies, sparking outrage among LGBTQ+ advocacy groups, employees, and users. The company now permits slurs and dehumanizing rhetoric targeting LGBTQ+ people, a shift critics say is a deliberate alignment with far-right agendas and a signal of its disregard for marginalized communities’ safety.
Related: From Meta to X, most major social media companies are failing LGBTQ+ users: GLAAD
Leaked training materials reviewed by Platformer and The Intercept reveal that moderators are now instructed to allow posts calling LGBTQ+ people “mentally ill” and denying the existence of transgender individuals. Posts like “A trans person isn’t a he or she, it’s an it” and “There’s no such thing as trans children” are deemed non-violating under the new policies.
Use of a term considered a slur to refer to transgender people is also now permissible, The Intercept reports. According to Platformer, Meta’s gay chief marketing officer, Alex Schultz, indicated to employees that abuse on Facebook and Instagram had the potential to generate more support for LGBTQ+ rights.
The changes, which include removing independent fact-checking and loosening hate speech restrictions, closely resemble Elon Musk’s controversial overhaul of Twitter, now X. Zuckerberg framed the updates as a return to Meta’s “roots” in free expression, but advocacy groups argue the move sacrifices safety for engagement.
Related: What LGBTQ+ people should know about Meta’s new rules
“When Meta overhauled major sections of its hate speech policy earlier this week, the company made it clear that it doesn’t care when LGBTQ people and other marginalized groups are viciously attacked across its platforms, and in fact, the company itself is encouraging it,” Leanna Garfield, GLAAD’s Social Media Safety Program manager, told The Advocate. “Meta has become an anti-LGBTQ company.”
A former Meta trust and safety employee toldPlatformer, “This is not the climate change debate or pro-life vs. pro-choice. This is degrading, horrible content that leads to violence and that has the intent to harm other people,” adding, “I really think this is a precursor for genocide.”
Meta’s changes also reinstate the promotion of political content and remove restrictions on “divisive” topics like gender and immigration. Civic content will once again be amplified without the interjection of fact-checkers.
The changes come after years of LGBTQ+ advocates raising alarms about Meta’s lack of enforcement of hate speech policies. A 2024 GLAAD report documented Meta’s failure to remove violent anti-trans content, much of which violated the company’s guidelines. In August, GLAAD and Media Matters for America flagged 100 posts containing the slur “tr***y,” many of which Meta allowed to remain online.
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Meta has also faced backlash for shadowbanning LGBTQ+ creators and restricting access to LGBTQ-related hashtags like #gay, #trans, and #nonbinary under its “sensitive content” policies, a restriction the company reversed only after public outcry.
Meta’s recent changes extended beyond policy overhauls to include the quiet removal of trans and nonbinary-themed features from its Messenger app, 404 Mediareports. The themes, inspired by the transgender and nonbinary Pride flags, were introduced in 2021 and 2022 to celebrate Pride Month and International Nonbinary People’s Day. Internal documents revealed the features were “retired” without explanation.
According to 404 Media, blog posts that had celebrated these themes and highlighted Meta’s apparent commitment to LGBTQ+ inclusion were also deleted. Employees expressed frustration and anger over the decision, with one describing the changes as “vicious, almost gleeful.” Another employee asked internally, “Does anyone know what happened to the nonbinary themes in Messenger/IG and where our public-facing content supporting this feature went? Is this related to the updated guidelines?”
Within the company, Meta employees are reeling. According to404 Media, employees expressed outrage on Workplace, the company’s internal communication platform. One LGBTQ+ employee wrote, “I am LGBT and mentally ill. Just to let you know that I’ll be taking time out to look after my mental health.”
Another employee told 404 Media, “It’s total chaos internally at Meta right now.”
The chaos could spill over to a broader swath of users on Meta’s platforms, according to GLAAD.
“Meta is now explicitly incentivizing influential accounts to terrorize trans people with slurs and dehumanizing narratives,” Garfield said. “Users and advertisers alike should take note that Meta’s platforms are no longer safe for anyone the company deems ‘abnormal.’ These changes will make Meta’s platforms less safe for everyone.”
Editor’s note: This story has been updated with additional reporting.
