*

Meta's Zuckerberg announces new speech policies

*

LGBTQ+ community fear increased hate, drop in partnerships

*

New standards could fall foul of global laws

By Adam Smith

LONDON, Jan 15 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Queer

creators fear Meta's decision to change its community standards

to allow more incendiary language against people of different

races and LGBTQ+ people could silence their voices, harm

livelihoods and damage their mental health.

The changes to Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and

Threads, were announced last week by CEO Mark Zuckerberg, with

critics saying the move was designed to appeal to

President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office next week.

"We've reached a point where it's just too many mistakes and

too much censorship. It's time to get back to our roots around

free expression," Zuckerberg said in a video released on Jan. 7.

Meta's new global rules allow "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.'"

Meta now also permits "content arguing for gender-based

limitations of military, law enforcement, and teaching jobs. We

also allow the same content based on sexual orientation, when

the content is based on religious beliefs," according to the new

standards.

"Meta's new policies regarding hateful conduct give users

the green light to share hateful rhetoric against LGBTQ+ people,

plain and simple," Jonathan Ochart, CEO of Beverly Hills,

CA-based marketing firm The Postcard Agency, told Context/the

Thomson Reuters Foundation in an email.

"Meta is fanning the fire of hate-fuelled discourse with

serious repercussions."

Scott Seitz, CEO of SPI Marketing in Guilford, CT, said the

changes jeopardise the social safety net that helps sustain the

mental wellbeing of LGBTQ+ users.

"The consequences will be devastating: increased suicide

rates, hate crimes and pervasive discrimination against women

and diverse communities," he said.

MORE POSTS, LESS MODERATION

Some creators, however, see a possible upside to the

changes that could boost "political" content in the algorithm,

leading to more exposure for LGBTQ+ posts.

As a result, creators such as SK Smigiel, who is nonbinary

and posts about gender issues from Maryland, could see an

increase in reach.

"I'm already very used to a heavy flow of both positive and

negative engagement on my page. Knowing (the changes) will

likely increase the negative engagement is disheartening, but

not entirely discouraging," they wrote in an email.

"Any visibility on a trans+ creator's account can be a

positive thing in my opinion," they said. "I know that not

everyone feels this way though."

They are worried, however, about the effect on brand

partnership deals, and they plan to encourage users to support

them on other platforms, such as the donation site Patreon, to

make up any shortfall.

Jamie Love, founder of London-based social commerce and

influencer marketing agency Monumental Marketing, says that

brands could be deterred from partnering with creators under the

new rules.

"Simply put, brands will not want to invest in platforms

that can harm marginalised voices - it's not just about ethics,

it's good business," he said in an email.

Some influencer and marketing agencies in the U.S. and

across Europe, especially those focused on LGBTQ+

representation, have been advising creators to disable comments

on their posts.

"When our talent, especially the content creators that we

represent, get hate online, we always recommend that they simply

do not engage. That means deleting comments and messages,

reporting and blocking users," Cora Hamilton, head of

Berlin-based LGBTQ+ marketing agency Uns, wrote via email.

"It's a quick fix, but it doesn't mean that the creators

aren't impacted by the hateful things that are said to them."

The Postcard Agency, among others, is also advising creators

to diversify across social media sites, including by joining

BlueSky, Pinterest ( PINS ) and Substack, and to favour platforms they

control, like personal blogs.

Seitz said the biggest platforms for LGBTQ+ users, alongside

Instagram, were LinkedIn and TikTok.

"While migrating away may take time, it's crucial to start

working your followers over to alternative platforms ... where

many in the LGBTQ+ community have already begun to build a

presence," he said.

However, TikTok is also under threat in the U.S., where the

Supreme Court is expected to decide this week whether the

video-sharing app will be banned over national security concerns

unless Chinese parent ByteDance sells it.

Trump has said he would like to see TikTok remain in the U.S

and wants the court to delay the ruling to allow him to seek a

"political resolution."

FINDING WAYS TO 'SURVIVE AND THRIVE'

In the biggest overhaul of its approach to managing

political content on its services, Meta also said it will scrap

its U.S. fact-checking programme.

These changes could see it run up against legislation in

Europe, such as the Digital Services Act (DSA), under which it

could be fined up to 6% of its revenue for failing to remove

illegal content, such as hate speech.

Meta says it will continue to remove posts that break the

law, but Zuckerberg conceded in his video that changes to

content filters meant "we're going to catch less bad stuff."

Britain's Online Safety Act, meanwhile, requires platforms

moderate for content that is abusive, based on race, religion,

sex, sexual orientation, disability or gender reassignment.

However, it does not come into effect until March of this

year.

A representative of media regulator Ofcom, which oversees

the law, said it will be gathering information from various

companies in coming months on matters regarding their safety

processes.

"We've already been speaking to many tech firms - including

Meta - about what they do now and what they will need to do as

new duties in the UK come into force," the Ofcom representative

said.

Despite the changes to Meta, some LGBTQ+ creators say they

are determined to remain vocal online.

" have been resilient over centuries of hate and bigotry

and we find ways to survive and thrive," said Farhad Divecha,

head of London-based agency Outloud LGBT.

The agency will educate its partners on the risks of

operating in sensitive areas and the potential for backlash,

Divecha said.

"No matter what happens as a result of this, I'm standing

firmly in my authenticity as a trans+ educator and creator. I'm

not going anywhere," Smigiel said.

(Reporting by Adam Smith, @adamndsmith, Editing by Ellen

Wulfhorst. The Thomson Reuters Foundation is the charitable arm

of Thomson Reuters. Visit https://www.context.news)