Meta’s new rules let it ban users or suppress comments that include the word “antifa” alongside “content-level threat signals.”

The policy change follows years of Meta and its chief executive Mark Zuckerberg’s pivot of political convenience toward President Donald Trump and his base. Following Trump’s second electoral victory, Meta quickly changed its speech rules to allow for anti-transgender slurs and dehumanization of immigrants, The Intercept previously reported, aligning the company with longtime MAGA culture war grievances.

Asked about the new restrictions on the word “antifa,” Meta spokesperson Erica Sackin pointed to a March transparency report that noted the company would “remove QAnon and Antifa content when combined with content-level threat signals.” The report does not explain what those signals are. Meta did not respond when asked if the company had discussed its antifa speech rules with the Trump administration.

Meta largely outsources the enforcement of its Community Standards rules to low-paid contractors whose interpretation and application of the policies can vary. The company’s automated, algorithmic content moderation systems are also famously glitchy. This combination can result in erratic censorship, particularly when political ideology is classified as violent or terroristic.

  • FauxLiving@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    10 days ago

    No anti-fascist calls themselves antifa and being anti-fascist is the default state of being for every single person who is not a fascist.

    ‘Antifa’ is a fabricated scare term prompted by the right-wing elite’s media influence campaign. It exists as a term in order to imply that there is some actual secret organization which can be presented as the boogey man to scare working-class people and/or to label as a terrorist organization so the elites in power can use the power of law enforcement to attack and jail their monied political opponents by claiming their association with or funding of a ‘known domestic terror group’.

    Anything saying ‘antifa’ on social media is either intentional propaganda or the ignorant masses propagating those same memes.

    • eldebryn@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      10 days ago

      That’s really not true. I’ve seen the term antifa (standing for anti-fascism) used plenty for many decades now.

      We’ve had antifa spray tags in my school’s walls.

      It may seems obscure to some parts of the world but for those of us who suffered under fascism multiple times (south Europe) it’s a very familiar phrase from a long time before trump become president.