The policy change follows years of Meta and its chief executive Mark Zuckerberg’s pivot of political convenience toward President Donald Trump and his base. Following Trump’s second electoral victory, Meta quickly changed its speech rules to allow for anti-transgender slurs and dehumanization of immigrants, The Intercept previously reported, aligning the company with longtime MAGA culture war grievances.
Asked about the new restrictions on the word “antifa,” Meta spokesperson Erica Sackin pointed to a March transparency report that noted the company would “remove QAnon and Antifa content when combined with content-level threat signals.” The report does not explain what those signals are. Meta did not respond when asked if the company had discussed its antifa speech rules with the Trump administration.
Meta largely outsources the enforcement of its Community Standards rules to low-paid contractors whose interpretation and application of the policies can vary. The company’s automated, algorithmic content moderation systems are also famously glitchy. This combination can result in erratic censorship, particularly when political ideology is classified as violent or terroristic.
That’s really not true. I’ve seen the term antifa (standing for anti-fascism) used plenty for many decades now.
We’ve had antifa spray tags in my school’s walls.
It may seems obscure to some parts of the world but for those of us who suffered under fascism multiple times (south Europe) it’s a very familiar phrase from a long time before trump become president.
In the US though he’s absolutely correct. It’s just not a term anyone but MAGAts use. This rule really is only gonna censor the people trying to fear monger, and not any actual “antifa members” because they don’t exist.