--- title: "Zuckerberg Announces New Measures to Increase Hate Speech on Facebook" description: "Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced sweeping changes that seem like they'll open the door to hate speech." date: "2025-01-07" modified: "2025-01-07" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/zuckerberg-meta-announcement-hate-speech" categories: - "Future Society" tags: - "facebook" - "hate speech" - "mark zuckerberg" - "Meta" --- # Zuckerberg Announces New Measures to Increase Hate Speech on Facebook ![Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced sweeping changes that seem like they'll open the door to hate speech.]() *\Image: Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call via Getty / Futurism\* In a cringe-inducing attempt to curry favor with president-elect Donald Trump, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced sweeping changes on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads that will almost certainly allow hate speech, misinformation, and other deleterious drek to proliferate on the platform even more than it already does. "It's time to get back to our roots around free expression," the 40-year-old tech founder said in a [new video posted to Facebook.]() Apparently, that means replacing [Meta's controversial third-party fact-checkers]() with user-submitted "community notes," lifting restrictions on "controversial topics," and moving its content review team from liberal California to deep-red Texas. Amid it all, a sidelong reference the millennial technocrat made to Trump suggests he's gearing up for the president-elect's second inauguration in just a few weeks. "After Trump first got elected in 2016, the legacy media wrote nonstop about how misinformation was a threat to democracy," the CEO said. "We tried in good faith to address those concerns without becoming the arbiters of truth." During his five-minute-long video address, Zuckerberg admitted that the new community note scheme was "similar to X," formerly Twitter. He failed to mention, however, that its newish owner Elon Musk also announced plans to [relocate X and SpaceX from the Golden State to Texas]() last year amid that billionaire's attempt to escape regulations and what he framed as excessive political correctness. Along with those moves, the [chief meta-mate]() also announced that the tech conglomerate plans to "get rid of a bunch of restrictions" on topics such as immigration and gender because, as he put it, such regulations are "just out of touch with mainstream discourse." "What started as a movement to be more inclusive has increasingly been used to shut down opinions and shut out people with different ideas, and it's gone too far," Zuckerberg said. "So I want to make sure that people can share their beliefs and experiences on our platforms." Exactly what allowing users to "share their beliefs" means about topics like gender identity and immigration means seems painfully clear: in an environment where some groups are fighting for [self-determination]() and safety and others are often literally [braying for blood](), the company is loosening its existing standards on what sorts of hateful things you can say on its platform. To round the entire thing off, the Harvard dropout also announced that Meta will be "bringing back civic content," which is his robotic way of saying that the company will soon start promoting political posts. "For a while the community asked to see less politics because it was making people stressed, so we stopped recommending these posts," Zuckerberg said. "But it feels like we're in a new era now, and we're starting to get feedback that people want to see this content again. So we're going to start phasing this back into Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, while working to keep the communities friendly and positive." That last bit, if you didn't catch it, is almost laughably similar to recent comments from [Musk begging people to be nicer]() and more positive on X — even while the [free speech absolutist]() himself [tweets ableist slurs]() against people who criticize him. Taken together, the shifts seem almost certain to open the floodgates for hate speech in the name of free speech. "We're going to dramatically reduce the amount of censorship on our platforms," Zuckerberg threatened. Given that he just [appointed Dana White](), UFC head and longtime Trump friend, to Meta's board, it seems best to take him at his word. **More on Meta:** [*Meta Kills AI-Generated "People" Like "Proud Black Queer Momma"*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()