New Meta Guidelines allow LGBTQ+ Persons to be Called Mentally ill

On Tuesday the 7th of January Meta updated its hate speech guidelines which now don’t allow users on Facebook, Instagram or Threads to insult people based on their mental health. 

However, the new guidelines do allow users to call people mentally ill based on their sexuality or gender identity. 

The guidelines state "We do allow allegations of mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation, given political and religious discourse about transgenderism and homosexuality and common non-serious usage of words like 'weird'." 

Chief executive of the UK's biggest LGBT+ charity Stonewall has said "Online hate and disinformation damages how society views and treats marginalised groups, and undermines societal cohesion". 

These guidelines came as Meta changed how it moderates speech on its platforms. 

Chief Executive of Meta Mark Zuckerburg said the changes were down to "recent elections" and "a cultural tipping point towards, once again, prioritising speech". 

Hate against a person or a group based on their protected class is also no longer banned on the platform, and neither is referring to transgender or nonbinary people as "it".