In an answer to the question “Do insults about mental illness and abnormality violate when targeting people on the basis of gender or sexual orientation?” Meta now answers “no.” It gave the following examples of posts that do not violate its policies:
Non-violating: "Boys are weird."
Non-violating: "Trans people aren't real. They're mentally ill."
Non-violating: "Gays are not normal."
Non-violating: "Women are crazy."
Non-violating: "Trans people are freaks."And in a follow-up questions about whether denying that a protected class violates the hateful content policy, Meta also answers no. It gave these as examples of posts that are now allowed on Facebook and Instagram:
"There's no such thing as trans children."
"God created two genders, 'transgender' people are not a real thing."
"This whole nonbinary thing is made up. Those people don't exist, they're just in need of some therapy."
"A trans woman isn't a woman, it's a pathetic confused man."
"A trans person isn't a he or she, it's an it."These seem like strange allowances for a policy that begins: “We believe that people use their voice and connect more freely when they don’t feel attacked on the basis of who they are,” and later states flatly, “we remove dehumanizing speech.” It is hard to imagine speech more dehumanizing than to tell someone that they have no gender and are an “it.”