The updates similarly maintain a number of older restrictions that Meta has had in place for years. The current version of the policy maintains bans on Holocaust denial, Blackface and insinuations of Jewish control of the media. It also adds a specific prohibition against comparing black people to “farm equipment.”
Meta also retained its previous list of so-called protected characteristics, which include race, ethnicity, national origin, disability, religious affiliation, caste, sexual orientation, sex, gender identity and solemn illness, as well as its policy on “protecting migrants, immigrants and asylum seekers” against “Tier 1” or “most serious” attacks, such as content that targets individuals or groups of people based on their protected characteristics or immigration status.
Consistent with the previous version, Meta continues to prohibit calling immigrants, people with “protected characteristics”, insects, animals, pathogens or “other subhuman life forms” or accusing them of being criminal or immoral. Some of the most xenophobic remarks made by celebrities, like President Trump’s in 2023, appear to be statement about illegal immigrants “poisoning the blood of our country” – may still violate Meta’s policies if published on its platforms. Meta did not respond to WIRED’s question about whether this particular statement would be allowed.