Tech giant Meta has just announced today that it would be making a major change to its hate speech policy.
The company says the decision has come after a significant rise in posts that feature the term ‘zionists’ across its Instagram and Facebook apps. But many find it appalling how the company has opted to make the change at a time when the Israel-Palestinian conflict is at its peak.
Meta is under a lot of pressure for silently oppressing the voices and opinions belonging to pro-Palestinian users. And now, this new decision seems to be in line with just that as Meta claims there’s a rise in anti-semitic incidents after the start of the war.
Meta shared more insights on this new change and how any content that featured the term zionists referring to Jews and Israelis would be deleted if it was found to make dehumanizing comparisons, including those indulging in calls for danger, or having existence denials.
The blog post by Meta shared how its hate speech policy used to consider the term as a proxy for the Jewish community in two different scenarios.
One had to do with making comparisons to rats while another reflected the term to only represent the Israeli or Jewish community. But now, Meta feels such scenarios are not correctly reflecting the majority utilizing the terminology online or even offline.
It further surprised many when the company confirmed that the abrupt decision arose after it received an overwhelming amount of feedback from people around the globe, that it dubbed 'stakeholders'. As one can expect, this has led many to question the company’s hypocrisy.
For those who might not be aware, Meta has been accused of censoring content on its app linked to the Hamas-Israel war since the start. And now, seeing it take a stand that further goes against those showing support for Palestine is worrisome to many.
Meta concluded the blog post by adding that its policies alter over time, thanks to the feedback it gets from meetings and other forms of insights like language, updates on products, and differences in societal norms.
However, it’s clear that this new change is bound to spark outrage amongst many who feel only one side of the picture is on display while the other is getting oppressed. Do you agree?
Image: DIW-AIgen
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The company says the decision has come after a significant rise in posts that feature the term ‘zionists’ across its Instagram and Facebook apps. But many find it appalling how the company has opted to make the change at a time when the Israel-Palestinian conflict is at its peak.
Meta is under a lot of pressure for silently oppressing the voices and opinions belonging to pro-Palestinian users. And now, this new decision seems to be in line with just that as Meta claims there’s a rise in anti-semitic incidents after the start of the war.
Meta shared more insights on this new change and how any content that featured the term zionists referring to Jews and Israelis would be deleted if it was found to make dehumanizing comparisons, including those indulging in calls for danger, or having existence denials.
The blog post by Meta shared how its hate speech policy used to consider the term as a proxy for the Jewish community in two different scenarios.
One had to do with making comparisons to rats while another reflected the term to only represent the Israeli or Jewish community. But now, Meta feels such scenarios are not correctly reflecting the majority utilizing the terminology online or even offline.
It further surprised many when the company confirmed that the abrupt decision arose after it received an overwhelming amount of feedback from people around the globe, that it dubbed 'stakeholders'. As one can expect, this has led many to question the company’s hypocrisy.
For those who might not be aware, Meta has been accused of censoring content on its app linked to the Hamas-Israel war since the start. And now, seeing it take a stand that further goes against those showing support for Palestine is worrisome to many.
Meta concluded the blog post by adding that its policies alter over time, thanks to the feedback it gets from meetings and other forms of insights like language, updates on products, and differences in societal norms.
However, it’s clear that this new change is bound to spark outrage amongst many who feel only one side of the picture is on display while the other is getting oppressed. Do you agree?
Read next:
• Google’s Latest Dark Web Report Allows Users To See If Their Data Was Breached Online
• WhatsApp Provides Greater Transparency To Group Chats With Enhanced Security Features
