The ink has hardly dried on Facebook’s new free speech policies, and the company has shown just what kind of ‘free speech’ it’s interested in. Meta—the company that owns Facebook and Instagram—has deleted a criticizing post from an LGBTQ+ rights organization, citing “cybersecurity concerns.”
Equality Amplified, a queer advocacy group, wrote to Meta expressing concern over the recent platform changes—which include replacing fact checkers with community notes and removing the site’s hateful conduct policy. By its own words, Meta’s new policy will “allow allegations of mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation.” Meta has framed these changes as important to “restoring free expression.”
“To suggest being LGBTQ+ is the result of mental illness is factually false and pushes dangerous misinformation,” Equality Amplified wrote in the now deleted post, according to PinkNews. “Homosexuality was declassified as a mental illness by the American Psychiatric Association in 1973, and transgender identities were similarly removed from the World Health Organization’s (WHO) list of mental disorders in 2019.
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“These decisions were based on decades of rigorous scientific research and advocacy, affirming that sexual orientation and gender identity are natural variations of human diversity, not pathologies. Leading organizations, including WHO, [the] American Medical Association, and the American Psychological Association, recognize this as fact.”
Equality Amplified posted the full letter to Facebook on Friday, and within hours it was taken down. The reason given was ‘breach of cybersecurity,’ which normally refers to phishing or account theft. The organization appealed the post’s removal but received the following response: “We’ve confirmed that it does not follow our community standards on cybersecurity.”
Equality Amplified is now speaking out over the double standard. “Meta claims the changes to their hateful conduct policy is to protect free speech, but their actions speak louder than words,” co-executive directors Thomas Willett and Matthew Blackwood told PinkNews.
“By removing our post under the dubious excuse of a cybersecurity breach, they’re not protecting anyone: they’re silencing dissent and shutting down crucial dialogue.
“Our post didn’t violate any cybersecurity standards. It raised legitimate concerns about how this policy shift is a direct invitation for harmful forces to target and oppress minorities. Meta’s decision isn’t about freedom of expression, it’s about creating space for a dangerous political agenda that aims to weaken protections for vulnerable communities and legitimize harmful, regressive actions.
“Their focus is not on safeguarding speech but on facilitating a broader societal shift that will allow abuse and discrimination to thrive unchecked.”
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