Spyke

Meta now lets users say gay and trans people have ‘mental illness’

Meta announced a series of major updates to its content moderation policies today, including ending its fact-checking partnerships and “getting rid” of restrictions on speech about “topics like immigration, gender identity and gender” that the company describes as frequent subjects of political discourse and debate. “It’s not right that things can be said on TV or the floor of Congress, but not on our platforms,” Meta’s newly appointed chief global affairs officer, Joel Kaplan, wrote in a blog post outlining the changes.

In an accompanying video, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg described the company’s current rules in these areas as “just out of touch with mainstream discourse.”

In tandem with this announcement, the company made a number of updates across its Community Guidelines, an extensive set of rules that outline what kinds of content are prohibited on Meta’s platforms, including Instagram, Threads, and Facebook. Some of the most striking changes were made to Meta’s “Hateful Conduct” policy, which covers discussions on immigration and gender.

In a notable shift, the company now says it allows “allegations of mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation, given political and religious discourse about transgenderism and homosexuality and common non-serious usage of words like ‘weird.’”

In other words, Meta now appears to permit users to accuse transgender or gay people of being mentally ill because of their gender expression and sexual orientation. The company did not respond to requests for clarification on the policy.

Meta now lets users say gay and trans people have ‘mental illness’https://www.wired.com/story/meta-immigration-gender-policies-change/Open linkView original on feddit.uk
lemmy.blahaj.zone

I'm trans. I do have mental illness. It's because society keeps sending me signals that I shouldn't exist.

245

For what it's worth, I am hereby sending you the official signal that you should absolutely exist, that you have every right to be yourself, and that your continued existence is important and meaningful for yourself and others in similar situations especially. I hope you will forever be gifted with the courage to be yourself, even when the world is challenging you on it.

48
sh.itjust.works

It's the village, not the individuals. Our society is fucking sick. I'm straight, but it (the intolerance and violence towards people who are different) makes me sick.

25
saltescreply
lemmy.world

You listen to society? They're the ones that invented gender characteristics and stereotypes. If you listen to them there's a chance you'll get caught up in their bullshit instead of just being what you'd be if there was no other human on earth.

11
lemmy.world

Kind of hard not to listen to society when you're a part of it. It's like saying to try to not listen to the music while you're at a nightclub.

47
Dojanreply
lemmy.world

I'd like out of this nightclub. Maybe move to a different, more pleasant nightclub.

8
slowcakesreply
programming.dev

I understand that are trying to be nice, but it's kinda rude tbh. Because you are making it seem like the problems they have aren't actually real. They might not have an alternative nightclub to go to because all of them are shit, or they can't go to another nightclub.

6
Dojanreply
lemmy.world

Oh, my apologies. That wasn't my intention at all.

I fully sympathise with not feeling like you belong in this society, I feel that way too. I've always felt that way. Sadly, I think precious few people are able to actually function and live separate from society, it requires a lot of means (money, mostly) that most people simply don't have. We can't choose to walk away from society, and so we're forced to live and operate inside of it.

The problems are very much real, and to me it feels like the best solution would be a new society rather than conforming to the BS we have to be in. That's just a pipe dream, though.

2

You're good, IMO, it's clear you didn't imply that they can just "move to another nightclub" and that not being able to is what you actually implied. Seen that exact comparison before with life being a loud nightclub and there are no others to go to.

2

I disagree, it can be read like that but I feel it's clear that's not what they meant. I think there not being a different nightclub to go to is implied, didn't even think it could have been meant another way before I read your comment.

1
lemy.lol

Is gender dysphoria not considered a health issue?? Legit asking. Like I thought the whole point of transitioning is that that is the treatment for it. That's not a BAD thing, but it is A thing. Calling gay people mentally ill is obviously non sense. Calling ALL trans people mentally ill I don't think is accurate... if they've actually transitioned lmao. Then they're not sick anymore ?? Plz let me know if that take is incorrect. Feel like having pre-transition gender dysphoria compared to other mental illnesses like anxiety/depression/etc is a positive thing because it normalizes it to a degree.

Big difference between them being... there IS actually a cure to gender dysphoria compared to many other mental illnesses that can only be treated. Arguing with a right winger about this shit, he said he felt bad for trans people and that they were mentally ill. My response was "yeah no shit, you realize the way to reduce their risk of suicide is by letting them get the care they and their doctors deem necessary. It's straight cruelty to acknowledge that it is something they need help with yet demonizing them for seeking help."

Guess the people saying shit like the headline aren't doing so with nuance in mind, and for them anyone trans at all = weird/mentally ill/sick.

7

The whole thing with trans health is that being trans is not considered a mental illness but gender dysphoria still has a diagnostic rubric and has health problems associated. So saying trans people who have transitioned aren't sick anymore isn't quite accurate because they were never considered sick in the first place. One of the ideas behind this way of thinking is a trans person's issues aren't caused because they are trans, it's caused largely due to the lack of acceptance and support in the society around trans people. Framing transness as a mental illness also ignores the flipside of dysphoria - gender euphoria which is a very specific joy experienced by trans people expressing themselves healthily, it's not simply from lessening pain around dysphoria, it's basically something mostly unique to the trans experience that is overwhelmingly positive.

Also there's not a one size fits all response to dysphoria. Some chose to physically transition and others choose to use other management techniques to help. There isn't a "cure" to gender dysphoria. There are limits to what can be achieved through physical transition even if one goes all the way. One can have dysphoria around stuff like not having periods and child bearing capabilities even if they are fully transitioned or there are things that are irreversible if the transition happens too late. Being trans can be a kind of complicated state of being where one needs to learn and implement how best to be supported. Framing it not as an illness removes the stigma of looking at the experience entirely clinically as something to be solved. The fix isn't to be "less trans" as it is when one approaches something as a disorder to be removed and minimized.

9
Kalystareply
lemm.ee

What trump wants to do to trans people is the equivalent of lobotomizing everyone with bipolar disorder because you don’t believe the accepted treatments work.

Gender dyspohoria is a mental health condition the same way ADHD is. Do you run around calling people with ADHD mentally ill? No. And, gender dysphoria is one of the easiest neurodivergent conditions to treat. You let the person be the gender they already know they are. Doing anything else may as well be lobotomizing them. It’s unacceptable and creates more problems. Plus it’s fucking cruel.

3

Feature not bug.jpeg

Gotta have an out group for the in group to vilify and all that :| I do get your point about calling someone with any kind of mental illness "mentally ill". That does feel rude. It's "technically correct*" but that doesn't make it less rude.

From googling 23% of US adults (assumed because current empire. Even being a US citizen, having some knowledge of history I can't blame people in other countries hoping/plotting to knock Hamburgerland down a few pegs because that's what happens, and we are absolutely past the zenith of American dominance) have a diagnosed mental illness. Lotta folks probably are undiagnosed. As is consistent with history, even in this golden era of mental health awareness, trans people are being othered. I would be curious to see some graphs of trans folk being mentioned in newspapers/magazines since the 1920s as a ratio of printed pieces.

1

Is gender dysphoria not considered a health issue [...] Feel like having pre-transition gender dysphoria compared to other mental illnesses like anxiety/depression/etc is a positive thing because it normalizes it to a degree.

There's an inherent problem of definitions here:

Consider: does the DSM classify transgender as a mental disorder? Hard to say. It includes 302.85: Gender Dysphoria, defined as “a marked incongruence between one's experienced/expressed gender and assigned gender”. It also includes approximately one million caveats saying that transgender definitely isn’t a mental disorder. Why the contradiction? Because regardless of the philosophical definition of mental disorder, the practical definition is:

  • If you call something a mental disorder, insurance has to cover treatment for it, which is good.
  • But if you call something a mental disorder, people will accuse you of trying to stigmatize them, which is bad.

The DSM writers are trans-friendly and want to make sure trans people can get the care they need (for example, in most states, people need a psych evaluation before they can get gender affirmation surgery), so they want to force insurance companies to cover transgender, so they have to include it. But they also don’t want to stigmatize trans people, so they also include a lot of paragraphs about how even though they just listed it as a mental disorder, it definitely isn’t a mental disorder.

2
teslasaurreply
lemmy.world

My thoughts exactly. As an outsider looking in, how would you classify gender dysphoria other than an illness?

It's treatable, just not the way religious fanatics want to.

1
Kalystareply
lemm.ee

I would classify it as a neurodivergent condition.

Do you call people with ADHD mentally ill?

1
teslasaurreply
lemmy.world

So what is a condition if not an illness? Can you have a beneficial medical condition? Maybe it's because English is my second language, but this is part of the confusion.

Well, technically they are. It's a detrimental neurological condition. It doesn't to my knowledge benefit a person to have untreated ADHD. Or as they say, a untreated mental illnessl. I don't much care for the padding of language, rather I would remove the stigma by using the term without judgement.

I think i'm seeing it as a classification tree, i could see Illness branching off to mental illness and then there would be an immense amount of mental illnesses. Somewhere there neuro divergence would be and perhaps ADHD under there.

1
Kalystareply
lemm.ee

Calling anyone with a mental health disorder these days is considered extremely rude to begin with. Also, at least in America, people with a condition like ADHD or Autism aren’t considered mentally ill, they’re considered neurodivergent. Which is a term with a much nicer connontation than would be used for someone with bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. Yes, it’s all semantics, but if you’re going to be talking to people with these conditions, the semantics matter. Don’t call trans people mentally ill. Hell don’t call anyone mentally ill. It’s like calling someone with downs syndrome the r-slur.

1

I'm not calling anybody anything. You misunderstand my point. Being rude is different from differentiating from the technical categorization of words. They are both. Neuro divergent is a category of mental illness.

I wouldn't call anybody mentally ill, cause it is too simplistic and rude. But it still is what the word means.

1
lemy.lol

Lmaooooo exactly how that convo went with that guy. "Yes theyre sick but think about all the people who transitioned before they were adults who regret it... I am going to focus on those people and ignore how 95% of cases the person doesn't regret it."

0
Kalystareply
lemm.ee

98% don’t regret it and those who do overwhemingly onlu regret it because of how society treats them.

3
lemy.lol

I didn't know that "how society treats them" with the regret part o.o can you source on that for future reference

1

Society can get fucked. You’re valid. Normal people want you here.

1
lemmy.ml

Reminder to get off Facebook and Instagram

This isn't the first time they've pulled stuff like this nor will it be the last

130
lemmy.world

Meta went all in on the VR Metaverse to woo the next generation and just shot themselves in the foot.

23

VR Metaverse would have worked if they let people have legs.

Meta would not have liked WHY it would have worked, however....

8

Businesses need to bring back email newsletters. And whatever celebrities or whatnot you care about need to too. The only reason I signed back up for either of those sites was to follow a local business for updates/sales/etc.

10
lemmy.world

Facebook has about 3 billion users across the globe. That's just 500 million short of half the human population of the planet. At its height Twitter was around 360 million. And it's user base has only shrunk by 30 million or so since the douche bag took it over.

Facebook, on the other hand, has dug its hooks into everyone's personal lives to a point at which getting them to ditch Facebook would be like telling everyone to basically ditch their friends and family. No one is going to do that.

Twitter was an add-on. It was an extra. You could use it or not, nobody cared. It hadn't built a large enough user base to be so integral to people's social lives. TikTok, in about half the time twitter has existed, has basically eclipsed it in terms of monthly active users.

We have to accept this fact, Facebook has become an institution. And it should scare literally everyone that such a huge and powerful platform is owned by one single person with no real oversight whatsoever. That is why he was able to unilaterally decide to first censor Facebook at the beginning of the election and now uncensor it once an oligarch friendly president has been elected.

Everyone's so focused on DElon Husk's role in getting Trump elected, but all Zuckerberg needed to do was shut down the discourse on his platform so that the news couldn't flow. And now he's adopting the policies of Xwitter in an effort to win some favoritism from the incoming administration.

9
lemm.ee

So, what is your solution, given the facts and the reality of the matter?

1
lemmy.world

There is none currently. You're free to continue to advocate dropping Meta products, but don't hold your breath. Ideally we would have some kind of government intervention to break up the monopoly that is Meta or some form of regulation to reign in their behavior, but none of our politicians care to bother and unfortunately, with the party coming into power in our government, there's little hope any kind of regulation on any monopolistic corporations. With our last election the American people have chosen to package themselves up and give themselves over to the corporate overlords.

2

I ditched facebook. Just means my friends and family have to call me. And if they don’t, fuck em.

1
feddit.uk

Reminder to get off Facebook and Instagram

Most of us are already out or lurking because of family or some specific group they can't do without.

The trick will be getting those people off the platform so we can cut all cords.

8
tektitereply
slrpnk.net

Do we not get to count all the foreskins he's eaten?

5
lemmy.world

Let’s be honest, they already allow rampant, dangerous misinformation, bullying, and hate speech. They’re just being a little more honest about it, now.

78

The mask has slipped because they know they can get away with it.

After all,this isn't anything forced on Meta, they are taking advantage of the incoming president being all for this and binning policies they clearly only follower reluctantly (and poorly).

20

I don't think it's a mask, I think they're signaling and competing for favor. The timing is obvious.

6

Don't forget that they will actively defend hate speech and overly police the opposite because their moderators aren't moderated. They have literal priests dictating what is considered misoginy and homophobia ffs (True story).

7
Bremmyreply
lemmy.ml

What a wild comparison. One is based off scientific facts and one is purely based on the supernatural. Literal opposites

Are you saying transactivism declares some people evil? How is that activism different from all other queer activism and does that also declare people evil? Is the belief in a soul part of any of that? Am I missing your point?

13
lemmy.world

Well you piqued my interest, where can i find these trans liturgy you speak of ? In a trans church? Or should i go to a woke cathedral? But seriously, what a pityfull comment you made. You could at least try to explain what you mean by false dichotomie before screaming about whatever strawman your comment is about. When did "trans activism" declared somebody irredeemably evil? (And did they deserved it?) And why are you talking about souls? Is this your way of understanding gender dysphoria?

12
lemmy.world

Jk rowling is really not a good example of "unfair" accusations she literally denied that trans people where targeted by nazi

14
vgareply
sopuli.xyz

I think JK Rowling is an example of a person who should've stayed the fuck out of Twitter. There might be some debate on what kind of a person she was before starting to engage people in Twitter, but I don't think there's any doubt that it made her worse in every possible way.

That she has been unable to let it go is the same kind of tragedy as when somebody succumbs to a narcotic and thus becomes a destructive asshole. Was the drug the reason for that individual to become an asshole or was he an asshole in soul and the drug just brought it to the surface?

6
Bremmyreply
lemmy.ml

People deem JK evil because she's a generally terrible, hateful person. On the other hand, religion deems an entire group of people as evil regardless of what they've done in their life. A woman likes a woman? Straight to hell according to them. They could cure cancer and still straight to hell (which is where JK stands with trans people)

13

And don’t forget before gay marriage was legalized, they stated that anyone who married outside their race was going straight to hell.

The religious “right” makes up a new enemy every 30-40 years when the group they were targeting gets legally recognized civil rights.

Trans people will get full rights as well. It’s just gonna take a couple decades and us fighting like hell. JK rowling is on the wrong side of history and will be viewed as such in a few decades. Shame she wasted her legacy

3
sh.itjust.works

I'll bite. Meta, obviously, never actually cared about free speech. Zuckerberg also said that they are about to flood the platforms with AI bots to increase engagement. I'd say getting rid of fact checkers is only to avoid having their own bots automatically brought down by their own moderation. The rest is a façade

57

Astute observation. I'm glad I stopped using the platform years ago but it seems like they're focused on trying to innovate their tech more than the actual engagement.

6

More exploitation of the seniors who are the few people left

4
lemmy.world

People need to stop using Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads, and Instagram.

50
GrymEdmreply
lemmy.world

I wrote my deletion post just a few hours ago actually. Cited sexism, homophobia, anti-immigration, no more fact-checking etc. I said I'd leave the account up for a few days in case anyone wanted to arrange a way to stay in contact (since I've had friends there since 2007), but after that I'm gone.

19
orgrinrtreply
lemmy.world

I remember back in 2017 or so when I left Facebook and did the same, only a handful arranged to keep contact otherwise. Ever since if I’ve met anyone from those years by accident, they’ve been very bitter that I just left them and didn’t stay in contact.

So just kind of a warning here, not everyone will be normal about it. It’s truly weird since I did the same; left a clear announcement I’d leave and hoped those interested would get in touch to figure out another way. Still so many, even after so many years, can feel betrayed and hurt because of that.

7

Thanks for the heads up. I can see how that would happen. In my case I posted literally once or twice a year since 2020 or so, and the last time I talked to anyone other than family was 6 months ago. I have several dozen "friends" that will see the post, but leaving likely won't affect much other than them being able to see photographs on FB/Instagram. Everyone I actually interact with knows other ways to contact me.

2
lemmy.world

I cannot believe how brave you are. It takes a lot of courage to quit post on facebook then report to Lemmy that you quit posted on Facebook.

-3

It was directly related to the post above. "People should do this" -> "I actually just finished doing that." It's not like I came here to brag out of nowhere. Why are you ignoring that in favor of picking a fight?

2
programming.dev

WhatsApp

Buddy, I fucking wish I could, but I need it because it is the de facto communication method in Brazil.

12
niftyreply
lemmy.world

That sucks, get people to switch to signal or telegram.

1

Easier said than done. I couldn't get even my mom on telegram, which is "the same thing". For work, simply not possible, I don't call the shots.

4
feddit.uk

Facebook, Instagram and Threads are easy, I was never on Threads and largely used the others for following people and groups rather than actively posting.

WhatsApp is the tricky one as all my friends and family are on there and it is pretty important. I could get some people to move to Matrix but not everyone. Luckily, it's the one that is the most difficult to enshittify. Still...

8

Yup! When I announced I’d leave WhatsApp back in the day, even my (old) parents and some (even older) relatives proceeded to download signal just to stay in touch with me.

Sure, I miss some news or announcements that they share in the big WhatsApp groups, but mostly I’m as up to date as everyone.

Most of my friends did the same, but I noticed my age group (and younger) seem more adaptable here and very quickly figured everything out, and we got some groups entirely moved there. I suppose they feel okay having multiple apps for one thing, as opposed to the older gens, who struggle to learn one thing properly and try their best to just stick with it until eternity.

Haven’t missed WhatsApp a bit, it was the least impactful of all of the meta suite (and others) I left behind back in 2017(?) or so.

2

The whole of American society is slowly shifting towards widespread acceptance of violence against queer people. Any notion that our society or culture has progressed in any way is fake. It's empty. The post Stonewall era of perceived progress is over. For many queer people, the approach of January 20th is a shadow encroaching on the light of lives we hoped to live. Fear is becoming very commonplace in our communities. There's no mistaking what the people in power plan to do to us. And every day, widespread society shows more and more that that's fine. Any debate that we deserve rights is over. We are a problem for those in power to choose how to get rid of. Our lives are completely at the whims of the state, a state now being handed over to a group of people who delight in our suffering. Who delight in the suffering of children.

I fully expect states like Florida to criminalize being queer as soon as Trump takes office. They will start to raid night clubs and arrest trans people under crossdressing laws and gay people under sodomy laws. Just like they did in the 60s. We will be forced into hiding. We will grow up never understanding who we are or that its okay for people like us to exist. A whole generation of queer children will die because of laws like this. Nothing has changed.

47

I wish, oh how I wish I could say you were lying or fear mongering.

The Democrats claiming they lost because they were "Too woke" and "Transpepole are to blame!11" despite the exit polls not supporting the reality of that idea was just manufacturing consent.

5

I honestly think conservatives want it to be legal for them to hunt and kill queer people in the streets.

3

U.S. Defamation law:

To prove prima facie defamation, a plaintiff must show four things: 1) a false statement purporting to be fact; 2) publication or communication of that statement to a third person; 3) fault amounting to at least negligence; and 4) damages, or some harm caused to the reputation of the person or entity who is the subject of the statement.

  1. false statement. ✔️
  2. publication ✔️
  3. negligence proven by not understanding why it was banned from communications just recently on their platform ✔️
  4. harm to the reputation of a person. (If 1 person believes or republished that information they have fulfilled 4 categories.)

I'd say your freedom of speech does not cover that at all because there was intent to harm others.

12
lemmy.world

You can now refer to women as property on Facebook and they are A-OK with that! But you will, and it has happened to me, catch an instant ban if you say all men are trash.

44
ipkpjersireply
lemmy.ml

Maybe it's just me but I don't think people should be saying or be allowed to say either of those two things. Neither of those two things are good for anyone.

9

In the context I said it myself it was because of Trump the rapist. I am very tired of women being raped and everything that comes with conservatives normalizing it.

6
lemy.lol

I think people should be able to say whatever bs they want to, but their identity should be attached to it.

-2

That's fine, I just choose to share last. Same as gun control. Every other entity needs to be disarmed. Every fucking government and billionaire too. Then I'm good with sharing everything.

1

“It’s not right that things can be said on TV or the floor of Congress, but not on our platforms,” Meta’s newly appointed chief global affairs officer, Joel Kaplan, wrote in a blog post outlining the changes.

This is the same Joel Kaplan that participated in the brooks brothers riot stopping the recount of the ballots during the bush v gore election in 2000 where the republicans stole the election forever changing the course of American history.

35

That's where things get even more worrying.

As it stands, he still has to abide by EU and British laws but then there's this:

That suggests that social media laws could be part of the negotiation with other countries who don't want to get wrecked by tariffs.

As weakening those laws will lead to an increase in unchallenged far right posts, they could have knock on effects in elections. Trump will have seen how effective the changes at Xitter were for him, so spreading that to other social media platforms is already a win for him but being able to impact the political landscape elsewhere would be a bonus - France and German are having problems fending off the far right and if they gained control they'd be a lot more compliant to his demands which has knock-on effects for the EU and NATO.

15

The far right hates america more than you can imagine. They would be more likely to leave NATO than talking to the USA

6
twinniereply
feddit.uk

These changes are only happening in the US. They wouldn’t be allowed to do this in the EU anyway, not without being sued loads.

9

His website and the posts in question are accessible from the EU though.

7
lemmy.world

I stopped letting Meta take my attention once they started making my feed fill itself with "reccomended" "you might like" pages and profiles that I at no point ever clicked on or searched for.

before, my feed was exclusively my friends content, and pages I followed.

now, they fill the gaps with evangelicals, gambling, and idiots posting chinese and russian war propaganda.

yup, get the fuck out. im done.

32
Blackmistreply
feddit.uk

My entire feed is just nonsense now. Last year a guy I knew from my Warcraft days had cancer while a relative in Canada had a baby.

They both posted these things on Facebook.

What Facebook showed me was constant spam, so now I just see chess puzzle channels from India, street cooking videos from places with no hygiene laws, magic eye pictures and retro games. I've never asked it for any of these things, yet some algorithm detected I paused for a millisecond while scrolling past them so now that's all I get. Fuck the people I know, right?

It used to be useful for exactly one thing and it can't even do that any more. The only way you can actually see a proper feed without spam is to go into a person/group's profile directly.

11
DicJacobusreply
lemmy.world

I use the website / app for exactly one purpose, marketplace. buy and sell shit.

I still have messenger for work purposes, as well as some family and friends. but the "Feed". the status updates, Fuck no. burn it all.

4
mxcoryreply
lemmy.blahaj.zone

And you can't even browse marketplace on the mobile site. It wants you to install their app.

4

And you get ads for anything you look up on Marketplace.

1

I decided I was going to discontinue using Meta products except to put out an occasional Instagram photo, pushed to Facebook, to tell...people I don't even talk to anymore, and for good reason...that I was alive and a sight of what I was doing. I discontinued my old Facebook profile and made a new one only for this purpose.

Because Facebook kind of sees me as a new user, I'm able to see content I wasn't able to before. And fuck, that place feels like some weird scam and bot flea market.

I hope it's soon to die but who knows if it'll transform into some unmasked arm of the government for surveillance.

3

Oh it's a complete ghost town. Absolutely useless as actual social media. I suppose you could try starring/favoriting all your friends lol...

8

It feels like the statements about the removal of fact-checking (which is all I heard about on the news) is misdirection, so the changes made deep in their policy documents get less attention than they deserve.

28
Dojanreply
lemmy.world

Does the metaverse even exist? Like is it a thing people use?

16
glimsereply
lemmy.world

This video is from last year and I doubt anything's changed. It's pretty funny if you haven't seen it

7
lemm.ee

I'm just happy to see the old internet make a come back.

I'd rather be called the n-word by someone claiming to be having sexual relations with my mother.

Because I'm tired of hearing about how "PDF-files" went and "game-ended themselves", because they had "corn" on their phones.

I prefer cesspools to a society so impossibly polite that it can only be a cover for a dystopia.

2

Kinda saw it coming ten years ago when I realized that Demolition Man's world was one where the mainstream was tumblr, and the counter culture forced to live in squalor for refusing to play along was 4Chan.

Heck Doug Walker had the same observation in his Nostalgia Critic review of the movie...

1

He praised X, a competitor, in his video announcement. I guess Musk was right. "Zuck is a cuck."

23

They already allowed it on Facebook, they just pretended they didn't while that kind of speech thrived on Facebook.

23

Facebook is a shitty place to be. In related "no shit, sherlock" news, the sun is still hot.

22

I agree but the problem is that there is a huge percentage of the population that use this dumb site as a way to collect and gather all their information about the world. The problem is not so much that fb changed, the problem is that so many people rely on it.

8
lemmy.world

Something tells me that Facebook does not feel the same if you say that about Republicans.

20
lemmy.world

If they abandon the capacity to moderate, they won't be able to check that either, unless there's some AI model that can detect leftists easily. A McCarthyismAI.

3

It should be no surprise. Zuckerberg and Sandberg met primarily with conservatives for years because they wouldn't stop complaining about how unfair the internet is with all this censorship on the platform. Waah.

3

“getting rid” of restrictions on speech about “topics like immigration, gender identity and gender” that the company describes as frequent subjects of political discourse and debate. “It’s not right that things can be said on TV or the floor of Congress, but not on our platforms,”

Yet when my mom tried to post about a museum visit, Facebook wouldn't let her because it contained the word "Lenin". Interesting.

15

Someone with a Facebook account wanna go make a post with Lenin and see if another account can view it lmao

1

Not much to elaborate here, the situation was what I described above. As for how this is relevant to the post, I feel like Meta/Facebook has also jumped on the "free speech for me but not for thee" bandwagon.

0
lemmy.world

When you finish reading this comment, you will forget you were ever gay.

14
lemmy.ml

META is failing. Mark is bending the knee because that's his only move.

14

Joel David Kaplan (born 1969) is an American political advisor, lobbyist, and attorney. In January 2025, it was announced that Kaplan will become the president of global affairs of Meta Platforms, owner of Facebook, in Spring 2025.[1][2][3] He has been the company's vice president of global public policy since 2011.

A longtime Republican political operative, Kaplan served eight years in the George W. Bush administration, including as White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy.[4]

Embarrassing no matter what your politics are. The fuck is the former White House Deputy Chief of Staff (the successor of Karl Rove under GWB, ffs) doing at Facebook? Did the job offer to Hitler fall through?

8

I have this theory that social media platforms only last so long …Facebook was doing a brilliant job of disproving my theory.

1
lemmy.world

People need to get a grip. This really feels like mass psychosis.

  1. Walk into Nazi bar.
  2. Pay dues to be a member (consume advertising, provide personal data).
  3. Be astonished at the fascist rhetoric of the Nazi bar!

If it were possible it would be fascinating to study the brains of people who do this. Is it old scar tissue from physical blows? Lesions from infections or illness? Just too much drugs and alcohol? Perhaps it's a vascular issue from failing organs and too much salt? Food dye, radiation, lead?

14
katy ✨reply
lemmy.blahaj.zone

Comparing Facebook to a Nazi bar is ridiculous.

not really considering meta has several nazis on their board.

2

Just the latest salvo in the proxy class war.

The bigoted, hateful hard right-wingers have been and are being very deliberately and methodically indoctrinated into serving as the footsoldiers in the privileged parasite class's proxy war against the left.

And Meta is ready to play its part.

9

Id bet Mark Zuckerberg has mental illness. Having the level of wealth that he has makes connecting with common people nigh impossible and leaves his pool of potential friends limited a handful of people who themselves focus on hoarding wealth that they don't even have any real use for.

Getting used to the power and comfort his billions give him means he has to worry about one day losing what he has attained, and forces him to justify to himself the possession of so much wealth while others starve.

I see no way someone can exist in that space for years on end without it warping their sanity into an uncaring money hoarder obsessed with making his numbers higher.

9

I would agree:

These are some common signs of ASPD:

Lack of empathy for others
Impulsive behavior
Attempting to control others with threats or aggression
Using intelligence, charm, or charisma to manipulate others
Not learning from mistakes or punishment
Lying for personal gain
Showing a tendency toward physical violence and fights
Generally superficial relationships
Sometimes, stealing or committing other crimes

...

https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/signs-sociopath

5

Id bet Mark Zuckerberg has mental illness. Having the level of wealth that he has makes connecting with common people nigh impossible and leaves his pool of potential friends limited a handful of people who themselves focus on hoarding wealth that they don’t even have any real use for.

I don't think you can truly become a billionaire without having some sort of problems. That amount of money is so unfathomably large you can't achieve it without exploitation on some level or another. Obviously people might use and abuse one another unintentionally, but when you've done so economically to the degree of earning billions?

3
lemmy.world

Isn't greed a mental illness too? Besides it's one of the seven deadly sins. So much for those christian-wannabes.

7
astralalareply
lemm.ee

A large segment of evangelicals have turned to a fatalistic theology where they are eternally elect and saved, and God hates everyone else. Therefore, they can do to "everyone else" whatever evil they want, because God predetermined it. Definitely not a new belief system, but it is a very self-serving one for their leaders who are angling for political power.

2

Oh, they are from the bible. They're called pharisee (hypocrites). Thus the money in 'their' church.

1

I’ve always seen people say and post this. The fact checking was selectively enforced. Better to have none than a half assed attempt

7
lemmy.ml

I wonder what broad over generalizations I can get away with about conservatives and liberals that may potentially harm them?

6

Bullshit, shadowbanned from where?

What did you say?

1

I've have been doing that for 20+ years and have been getting somewhere 🤔

1

I'm sure I am speaking to the choir here, but body dismorphia is the mental illness here, and transgenderism is the cure.

Pre-transition transgender people are mentally ill, due to the emotional pain that comes from being trapped in a body that they don't feel represents themselves. The cure for that illness is, of course, transitioning into the gender that makes them feel like themselves. So, a fully transitioned transgender person is no longer mentally ill, at least from body dismorphia.

Therefore, people who are against things like puberty blockers and HRT are literally trying to keep mentally ill people from getting better. I am okay with body dismorphia being referred to as a mental illness, in accordance with medical science. The fact that it is a mental illness shows the cruelness of the people fighting against the literal cure for it.

However, I am sure Facebook is going to just let anyone refer to perfectly happy and fully-transition transgendered people as mentally ill, which is most definitely not true, and shouldn't be allowed.

Obligatory Fuck Zuck.

6

In a way, you could say that. It's also a societal one. Its a whole lot of problems rolled up into one, really.

Body dismorphia is only a mental illness in the sense that it causes a lot of emotional distress. Not in the sense that it is a delusion or the person is crazy, or anything.

7

They enforce anti-bullying, and by that I mean calling bigots bigots is considered as bullying by Facebook.

4

The factuality of this is irrelevant as 99% of the time this will be used as a weapon to bully people. No one on facebook talks about metaphysics. Does anyone really think that there are meta discussions about the origins "of the gay" and what it means in our collective society?

Americans really fucked the world with their elections this year and it's just the beginning.

5
sh.itjust.works

Meta sucks and allowing accusations of mental illness is shitty.

That said, "allegations of abnormality" and "weird" are hard to take issue with. There is nothing at all wrong with being gay or trans, but by the numbers it is absolutely "weird" and "abnormal". This is exactly what the word "queer" means, by definition.

Accusing of mental illness is reproachable, but weird and abnormal are both accurate. You no what else is abnormal? Being exceptional. These are not bad conditions to find yourself in, but neither are they "normal" by population.

4
Snapzreply
lemmy.world

Don't equate "weird" and "abnormal" here? One word has an exclusively negative connotation, the other is a much more considered, clinical word.

They are not the same thing

0

No?

Top definitions by Merriam Webster for weird:

  1. Of strange or extraordinary character: Odd, Fantastic

  2. of, relating to, or caused by witchcraft or the supernatural: Magical

People use either of these words to mean something negative, just like they do for any word that implies being different from the majority. That doesn't change their definitions though.

1

Based on what I've seen on the platform I didn't realize they even had that rule in the first place

3

In other words, Meta now appears to permit users to accuse transgender or gay people of being mentally ill because of their gender expression and sexual orientation.

This is nothing new. They've never cared about hate speech or taken it seriously, they're just admitting it now.

3

I need to, because family refuses to use anything else for chat. Or at least with me, as my younger brother likely is an unironic nazi.

4

It's easy to say this when you're from a younger generation who uses more savvy platforms, but some people never got social media literate past Facebook. To them it's just somewhere they log in to sometimes to see pictures of their new nephew in British Columbia or to sell an old bike on marketplace, or other really casual use. Maybe they look through their news feed sometimes and laugh at a meme or whatever. They really have no concept of what they are going to be fed and what fake news is even. They're not ignorant, they just live most of their life away from a screen. And they're not all older people. I have plenty of friends from church younger than me who have a Facebook that they update maybe once a year with a picture of their kids on Halloween and that's it, they never do anything else with it. Some people genuinely have no concept of all the evil that's being wrought on these platforms.

0
lemm.ee

I hate fuckerberg but there's a possibility he's playing 3d chess this time.

The amount of backlash and outrage that letting all the bullshit through because politicians are spewing it and being cheered might cause the politicians doing it to have to change. Generally no one wants the new policy.

They clamor for "free speech" but once they see how it devolves the public sentiment will say "OH GOD WE TAKE IT BACK"

1
dx1reply
lemmy.world

That is an extremely remote, one might say infinitesimally small, possibility. Incredibly far more likely is that he's plugged in politically and the ruling class wants to shift public debate even more fascist using automated control of public discourse.

5

It seems clear as day to me that all tech companies and leadership are kissing the ring right now to keep profits flowing and avoid being targeted or to collude with schemes to increase profits in the future, so like you're saying that's the most likely rationale. This could very easily be part of whatever scheme was negotiated verbally.

1
lemmy.world

Oh yeah sure, THIS is what you people should be focusing on. Not on how to win voters for the next elections by NOT focusing on the same shit the electorate already told you they didn't care about, noOOooo.

Instead let's just ignore what we didn't learn from them, and double down! After all, the proles are too stupid to know better than an echo chamber!

1

Trump campaign fucking smashed it. They live in current age and played us all.

But how much did we hear about Gaza and Israel? That's all sorted now, yeah? It makes me fucking sick how they used a genocide to turn us against their opponent when they themselves are going to be worse in every measurable way possible.

I hate how gullible people have gotten.

6
lemmy.world

Next election? Are these the actions of a regime who thinks they'll have to be reelected to stay in power?

3

Now a democratic elected government is a regime just because its not your party?

go outside and touch some grass, kid

-1

So because one major party is spouting racist garbage that means Facebook needs to follow?

1

Your response doesn't address my initial point. Again, don't make that false equivalence.

1
lemm.ee

It's not like they would stop believing those things if Facebook didn't let them express it. At least now we can argue with them in the open.

0

You think you won't be banned by selective application of the rules for arguing back? I mean, best of luck to you, but this isn't a scalable solution to the problem.

5

Is it? My bad, it definitely was not intended to be a homophobic comment. I appreciate you letting me know. In my experience, the religious and conservetives who spoke with the most vitriol towards the lgbtq community were in fact closeted and ended up coming out after being caught.

4
lemmy.world

I am pretty much okay with freedom of speech, sunlight is the best disinfectant, etc., etc. The alternative is driving this kind of rhetoric underground where they have the benefit of acting like they're being oppressed as "truth-sayers" or whatever.

I happen to think there's some truth to some Conservative arsehole's recent statement that pockets of Islamic migrants in the UK are incapable of culturally integrating, which is being lambasted as xenophobic hate speech despite the fact it's demonstrably true. I saw a schoolgirl in the full veil yesterday, I'm sorry but I don't think that's in keeping with progressive values, whether you want to call those "Western" or not. Talk about referring to women as household objects.

Then again, I haven't used Facebook for years. Maybe they're pandering to their user-base.

-1
LotrOrcreply
lemmy.world

It's just as much freedom of choice to want to wear a full veil as it is to not want to wear one

2
LotrOrcreply
lemmy.world

It's not really racism if I assume that an entire group of people with over a billion members are all the same

You have no idea if that child is abused or not

-3

Children within ultra-conservstive religious groups are very likely to be victims of abuse.

It's a pretty likely outcome when your worldview demands your progeny follow your every command

3
lemmy.ml

It's not really racism if I assume that an entire group of people with over a billion members are all the same

What do you think racism is???

2

I don't believe the Mancunian schoolgirl dressed in the full Islamic veil I saw yesterday was suffering from a surfeit of freedom in her personal choices, let me know if that needs further clarification.

2

At this rate, someday guys may be able to joke around again

This post is a work of satire

-2
lemmy.world

I still think this whole idea that we were going to get big tech (or anyone really), as owners of the modern mediums of communication, to act as the arbiters of truth and harmful messages was always a ridiculous notion. It's both not in their interests and not in their power.

The mainstream of the liberals and the left seem to have become so obsessed with policing speech that they've nearly completely given up on meaningfully improving the material conditions of people's lives. You win the narrative by delivering real results that people can see and feel, not by trying to ban charlatans from spinning bullshit.

Change the world, and the narrative will follow. Not the other way around.

-3
hypnareply
lemmy.world

I think it's more about being able to play as the oppressed, and whip up their base. There have been many platforms where they could post their hate. Censoring speech just fuels outrage and invites the Streisand effect.

But in this case I don't think Zuck really cares about enabling these right-wing messages. It's about saving money by cutting a bunch of expensive fact checkers, and displaying friendliness toward the new president; either because they don't want to be singled out for punishment, or they hope to be rewarded with some largess.

-2
lemmy.ca

The charlatans spinning bullshit for over 70 years is the reason we have never had anyone from "the left" in a position of power to make any meaningful change.

4

I really don't think so. If the process was so simple as writing false or hurtful things, and then your political opponents are blocked from power, then why doesn't the left just become a bunch of shitposters and kick all the fascists out?

I think a more plausible explanation for why the left has been excluded from power is simply that American politics runs on donor money, capitalists have lots of money, and they have a class interest in excluding the left. You can certainly get deeper than that, but that's sort of the heart of the issue.

Note here that Zuck and Meta are capitalists, and were never going censor the narrative contrary to their interests.

-2

"Facebook, Instagram and Threads now lets users say gay and trans people have ‘mental illness’"

There, I corrected the title for you. Happy?

6
lemmy.ca

Some of them do have mental illness, just like some straight people have mental illness

-7
spujbreply
lemmy.cafe

the company now says it allows “allegations of mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation

“trans people disproportionately face mental health concerns including depression and anxiety” ✅ OK in my book

“you are trans, so you are mentally ill” ❌ reductive, hateful, and a flat out lie, but approved by Meta now apparently

19
rabberreply
lemmy.ca

Isn't that the same thing just said nicely vs not nicely

-11
lemmy.world

It is only the same thing if you are under the mistaken belief that all trans people are mentally ill. Is that what you believe?

5
rabberreply
lemmy.ca

No but I believe a higher percentage of trans people are mentally ill than non trans people.

3
rabberreply
lemmy.ca

Because there has been clear and consistent data on this

1

The issue is, people want to argue LGBTQ+ people are like that due to mental illness, and thus either need to be corrected through torture usually disguised as treatment, or must be removed from society and/or the genepool.

7
FiveMacsreply
lemmy.ca

Like fuckerburg

I also love how someone actually got offended and downvoted you for saying literal fact that a human, can have mental illness.

-6
rabberreply
lemmy.ca

Everything gets downvoted on lemmy, that's why I turned off downvoting in preferences and it's a way better experience.

-11
FiveMacsreply
lemmy.ca

Ohh you can do that? I should check if jebroa has it too, not like downvotes usually bother me.

1
lemm.ee

It obviously does hurt your feelings if you are actively seeking ways to block seeing downvotes lmao.

4
rabberreply
lemmy.ca

I don't think it's weird to want to avoid needless negativity.

"Actively seeking ways" lol it's 2 clicks to accomplish permanently

-1

Not everyone I meet is an asshole. There are a lot of them here though, likely including yourself.

0
lemmy.world

I get the sense a bunch of y’all weren’t around for the early internet.

Lots of dumb people out there and they’re doing to say all kinds of deranged shit. Grow a pair and move on.

-12

I've been on the Web since mid 90s. It is 100x worse now, due to systemic promotion of fascists.

10

Real "Old Man on the Porch" vibes coming from this one. I was around for the early internet, you're completely losing touch with society and reality if you think it's the same.

Most people at that time didn't get their news and gossip from a device in their hand. It was called a newspaper, education, or listening to your peers. Internet extremists were still considered fringe or whacko's and you had to hunt them down to learn more, they weren't blasted by an algorithm on a front loading page for you.

People's businesses and way of life weren't determined by their access to internet and the corporations didn't have such a stranglehold across the economical board when it came to online. The hero worship of those that control the companies wasn't at such an all time high, but considered a weird cult.

I'm not even going to go into the difference a child has on the internet today versus what a kid going through the 90's was like, there's just no comparison to what's going on now. Yeah we had obscure boards, messengers, and silly videos on multiple sites....that's seriously nothing compared to how mainstream everything has become.

4

I've been online since the days of dial-up, and even places like 4chan had containment boards specifically set aside for jackasses. If you went to one of those you knew what you were getting into. Not that you wouldn't find it on other boards, but the content elsewhere was mostly memes, life stories, cooking, vidya, shock content and so on. You could always find stupidity and hatred, but it's way more common now in terms of # of people posting. With the removal of moderation Facebook is set to become the new /pol/ but sitewide.

1