This week, Meta took a gigantic step backward at the expense of every single one of us. On the morning of January 7, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a set of rollbacks to the tech giant’s content moderation policies. Central to these changes are Meta’s elimination of their fact-checking system and major updates to their Hateful Conduct Policy that remove protections for women and trans people. Meta’s content moderation approach is now set to resemble X’s Community Notes, according to Zuckerberg. Under Meta's updated policy, users will be allowed to: Refer to women as their personal property Call women and LGBTQ+ people mentally ill Argue for the economic exclusion of women and LGBTQ+ people Use the hateful term “transgenderism” and the outdated term “homosexuality” to refer to trans and LGBTQ+ people. In all, this policy overhaul provides a blank check to bad actors on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads to intimidate, harass, discriminate against, and enact violence against women and gender-expansive people, and to mislead and disinform other users. It also sends a clear political message: Zuckerberg--who implemented the fact-checking system in 2016 after Facebook faced criticism for facilitating the spread of disinformation around Donald Trump’s first election win--is now ready to bend to Trump and his acolytes. Zuckerberg spoke in his statement about how these policy changes are intended to mitigate censorship and expand speech. But of course, we know who will continue to be bullied, harassed, and censored and whose speech will be allowed to flourish. Will you add your name now?

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