Meta says new rules prioritize freedom of expression, but even civil liberty advocates have mixed feelings

Canadian groups who study and advocate for free expression have mixed feelings on Meta's changes to what is automatically considered "hateful" conduct on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, as advocates for 2SLGBTQ+ people and women point out concerns over terms like "whore" being allowed.

"We're getting rid of a number of restrictions on topics like immigration, gender identity and gender that are the subject of frequent political discourse and debate," wrote Meta's Joel Kaplan, the company's chief global affairs officer.

The company recently changed its hateful conduct policy to state that users can now explicitly compare "gender or sexual orientation" to being mentally ill or abnormal, when this was previously not allowed.

Comparing other aspects of a person's identity to mental illness is still banned by Meta.

The company has also removed an explicit restriction on referring to women as property or objects, and removed the words "whore," "slut," and "perverts" as restricted terms.

Meta representatives refused an interview request from CBC News, but said it's important to note differences between offensive speech versus speech that can lead to violence, and that the company does not believe its role is to regulate what is offensive.

"What started as a movement to be more inclusive … has gone too far. I want to make sure that people can share their beliefs and their experiences on our platforms," said Meta CEO and Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg in a video posted on Jan. 7.

The backlash from groups representing some of the affected groups in Canada was quick.

Queer-focused charity It Gets Better Canada has said that, anecdotally, it had already noticed a large amount of what it called "hate comments" on Facebook — and it's concerned things could get worse given Meta's new policy.

"These new policy changes, they're going to have negative consequences to 2SLGBTQ people using social media," said It Gets Better Canada executive director Omid Razavi in an interview with CBC News.

He pointed out that, for many young people, social media has been one of the only places they could communicate about their identity, and explicitly allowing young queer people to be called abnormal or mentally ill could have negative outcomes.

"What needs to be, or what used to be, a safe space for sharing information, raising awareness and building community is really going to move towards a downward spiral," said Razavi.

He believes that codes of conduct are important ways to signal that an online community is for everyone, and that Meta's decision to remove restrictions that explicitly apply to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people could also send a message that perhaps those groups are less welcome.

"Knowing that there are certain guidelines in place and whether or not people choose to follow them at least creates that sense of a hopeful barrier or responsibility, or at least a moral ground that the platform that you are on wishes for you to abide by," Razavi said.