Friend,
This week during President Biden’s farewell address to the nation, he issued a stark warning for the American people about big tech and the rise and concentration of power in the hands of the wealthy and powerful:
“Americans are being buried under an avalanche of misinformation and disinformation, enabling the abuse of power... the truth is smothered by lies told for power and profit.”[1]
It’s not hard to see what President Biden is referring to. Tech titans and billionaires across the industry are all rushing to appease Trump and the MAGA right wing in a desperate attempt to win their approval. Perhaps the worst among them is Mark Zuckerberg, whose recent decisions have upended the content moderation policies for Facebook and Instagram, allowing some hate speech and misinformation to spread largely unchallenged by the platforms.
Just what sort of content will now be allowed on the platform?
“It has updated its policies to permit referring to women as "household objects or property" and to gay or trans people as mentally ill. Internal training material [...] appears to show that examples of newly allowed speech include calling immigrants feces and using slurs to refer to transgender people.”[2]
And that likely just scratches the surface of the awful things Meta will now allow to spread on their platforms.
We cannot look away while Mark Zuckerberg and Meta capitulate to Trump and MAGA leaders—there must be guidelines for how information is spread online.
Thank you for your advocacy on this issue.
The People For Digital Team
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Friend,
Less than two weeks before Donald Trump returns to the White House, Mark Zuckerberg made a sweeping announcement: Meta (parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and Threads) is eliminating moderation policies that protect users from disinformation and hate.
Let’s be clear – this isn’t about free speech. This is about Zuckerberg bowing to Trump and the MAGA movement.
Sign the petition: demand Zuckerberg reverse these dangerous changes! >>
These policies – announced with fanfare and under the guise of "free speech" – were rolled out just before Trump’s second term begins. The timing is no coincidence. Zuckerberg has handed Trump exactly what he wants: a platform with no accountability and no guardrails, where hate speech and lies can run rampant and virtually unchecked, except for the reliance on “community based” fact-checking similar to what was adopted by Twitter/X.
Billions of people rely on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. The decision to abandon moderation isn’t just reckless – it’s a gift to MAGA extremists who have long complained that moderation prevents them from spreading lies without consequence. But bending the rules for Trump and his MAGA enablers isn’t protecting free speech; it’s laying the groundwork for authoritarianism.
We’ve seen what happens when platforms like Twitter/X abandon moderation: an explosion of hate speech and lies.[3] Don’t let Zuckerberg do the same with Facebook.
Tell Zuckerberg and Meta to stop bowing to Trump and restore moderation policies! >>
Thank you for speaking out to protect truth and accountability.
-- The People For Digital Team
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Sources:
[1] “Key lines from President Joe Biden’s farewell address”CNN, 1/15/25.
[2] “Meta built a global fact-checking operation. Will it survive?” NPR, 1/10/25.
[3] "Verified pro-Nazi X accounts flourish under Elon Musk" NBC News, 4/16/24.
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