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.

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[–] 143 points 5 months ago (2 children)

child exploitation and hate speech, cool cool cool. any mention of a loose-knit global movement against fascism that has existed for decades, that's dangerous. priorities!

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    [–] 86 points 5 months ago* (38 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 34 points 5 months ago (9 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 9 points 5 months ago* (3 children)

    In the US though he's absolutely correct. It's just not a term anyone but MAGAts use. This rule really is only gonna censor the people trying to fear monger, and not any actual "antifa members" because they don't exist.

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  • [–] 8 points 5 months ago

    I think the term antifa was originally just that- short for anti fascist. But it got hijacked and slandered and labeled teroor org. By entities that felt encouraged to do that.

    But you're definitely right. Being an anti fascist is a default state of human being.

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  • [–] 6 points 5 months ago

    You need to read Antifa, a manual written by Mark Bray. You will be surprised with history. The real propaganda was the billionaire media that biased your opinion. No offense (unless you really skip skimming through the easily found online epub, in which case you'd be denying yourself the chance to grow and hence lose any respect I had for the human being you are ;)

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    [–] 76 points 5 months ago (3 children)

    Conservative voters are so stupid, they actually think Antifa and Anonymous are official, trademarked, centralized organizations. Just start saying the full thing, "anti-fascist" when describing protestors, etc...

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    [–] 65 points 5 months ago (3 children)

    You cannot be pro Democracy without being Antifa. If you do not support fascism, you are antifa.

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  • [–] 58 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    So, anti fascism is not allowed in USA? Understandable, it want not allowed in Italy 1922-1943 nor in Germany 1933-1945.

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  • [–] 53 points 5 months ago* (2 children)

    So this basically means they are proud to be "Fascist" then.

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  • [–] 45 points 5 months ago

    As a self proclaimed leftist who has been to many protests, I have never once heard anyone say the word Antifa except for my Maga boss when he thought Antifa was going to come and rob his house after the BLM protests...

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  • [–] 32 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    tl;dr this new policy is dumb and bad. References to specific things like Antifa make no logical sense as a grounds for censorship, because there were already reasonable rules in place to handle actual problems.

    In some cases, the content that Meta considers a threat signal is commonsensical. If, for instance, a user mentions bringing a weapon to an event, the company flags it as a threat signal. But in other cases, Meta’s process for identifying threat signals is more vague. Under the new rules, Meta might trigger a threat signal when a user posts a “visual depiction of a weapon,” a “reference to arson, theft, or vandalism,” or “military language,” if accompanied by the word “antifa.”

    If “antifa” is mentioned in the context of “references to historical or recent incidents of violence” — a category so sprawling that it includes “historic wars” and “battles” — that post will also be penalized. Should Meta apply this rule as written, the company could, for instance, restrict posts comparing the antifascist nature of World War II to the contemporary antifa movement.

    It's difficult to believe any intellectual discussion would happen on Facebook, but this rule further cements the suppression of it.

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    [–] 23 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    I can’t believe anybody uses products from this company anymore.

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    [–] 22 points 5 months ago
    [–] 21 points 5 months ago (7 children)

    Looks like Zuck is all in and has no choice but to support evil, because if/when the evil collapses, so does Zuck. Must be stressful for him as history has shown that this behaviour eventually catches up to them. Sadly, some make it too old age and run entire countries before it catches up which causes a lot of unnecessary suffering.

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  • [–] 5 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 child)

    social media has been twisting itself to protect conservatives and right wing political terrorism since damn near the beginning.

    Its where their bread and butter are. Right wing idiots following right wing demagogues spouting right wing bullshit are the ones that dont run adblockers, that click all the ads (Especially if its for merchandise for their chosen political team), and generate disproportionate amounts of money.

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    [–] 18 points 5 months ago (1 child)
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    [–] 16 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    This is why Facebook is banned in China and should be in any civilized country. It's nothing but an extension of US soft power and its fascist imperialist tentacles.

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    [–] 14 points 5 months ago* (3 children)

    So the bots and borderline mentally handicapped senior citizens that use Facebook can no longer say "antifa".

    Whatever.

    I have a Facebook account with a fake name so I can peruse Marketplace. The shit that it tried to get me view is literally insane. A outrage inducing AI post that's clearly fake with thousands of comments littered with spelling errors that are barely even readable. Facebook makes me realize how Trump was elected. People are very very very stupid. Go see for yourself. You won't believe your eyes.

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    [–] 13 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    Is "Pro-Constitution" and "Anti-Tyranny" gonna be on a list of banned words?

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    [+] 12 points 5 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (3 children)
  • [–] 11 points 5 months ago

    No no officer I didn't say antifa. I said I was a fashopp (Fascism Opponent)

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  • [–] 11 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    Antifa antifa antifa antifa antifa oh damn looks like lemmy is not yet ruled by pedophiles

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    [–] 9 points 5 months ago

    I think the word is mostly used by the far right anyways

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  • [–] 8 points 5 months ago* (5 children)

    Ok, we can write anti-fascist...it's just a tiny bit more verbose...

    ...right?

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    [–] 7 points 5 months ago

    The only time I ever see the word used is by some conservative Karen bleating about how it's a terrorist org or whatever, so nice self-own I guess?

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  • [–] 6 points 5 months ago

    Anybody taking bets on what the “unalive” equivalent of antifacist is going to be?

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  • [–] 6 points 5 months ago

    is that the same guy claiming that there should be no moderation on Facebook for "true freedom" and who cried his eyes out telling stories of horrible Democracts making him take out deranged individuals off platform? Well...

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  • [–] 6 points 5 months ago (3 children)
    [–] 6 points 5 months ago

    Imma bout to get banned on instagram…

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  • [–] 6 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    Good. People who still utilize these properties should be abused until they realize they can use a different service.

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