Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC Joins Civil Rights Groups to Express Concerns with Changes to Meta’s Hateful Content Policy
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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC (Advancing Justice – AAJC) today announced that it has joined fellow civil rights groups to share a letter outlining their concerns with Meta’s recently announced content moderation changes. Changes include ending their fact-checking program, the introduction of community notes and the weakening of its hate speech policy.
Although the signed civil rights organizations have been convened by Meta for years to advise on how the company’s policies impact marginalized communities, they were not consulted by Meta ahead of the policy revisions. The letter details how these new policies open Meta’s platforms up to an increase of anti-immigrant, racist, anti-LGBTQ+ and ableist content. They also allow for the perpetuation of stigma and prejudice against marginalized groups, opening them up to even more targeting, dehumanization and offline violence.
The letter also expresses concern with Meta’s move to replace fact-checking with a community notes system as a means to circumvent censorship. The signed groups emphasize that fact-checking is not censorship, and the contextual labeling of posts serves to foster, not hinder, speech and debate. Under the new rules, and without built-in guidelines for ensuring reliability and accuracy, Meta’s platforms are at risk of perpetuating misinformation to the very users they serve.
Advancing Justice – AAJC and the signed groups offer Meta their continued expertise to better reaffirm true free speech without making our communities more vulnerable to targeted harm. The full letter can be read here.
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