An LGBTQ+ advocacy organisation’s Facebook post, which criticised Meta’s changes to the platform’s hateful conduct policy, has been removed for allegedly breaching the company’s “cybersecurity concerns”.

Equality Amplified, an LGBTQ+ origination which champions LGBTQ+ voices and rights, wrote to Meta on Friday (10 January), expressing concern about changes to the social media company’s fact-checking programme and hateful conduct policy.

A post containing the letter was shared on Facebook.

Three days earlier, on Tuesday (7 January), Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg announced a set of changes under which the company – which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads – will no longer moderate posts on topic such as immigration and gender “that are the subject of frequent political discourse and debate”, and replace their independent fact-checking programme by a community notes system, similar to that seen on Elon Musk’s platform, X/Twitter.

Selling the changes as “restoring free expression”, the updated guidelines will allow users to refer to women as “household objects or property”, Black people as farm equipment, and transgender or non-binary people as “it”.

In addition, it will be acceptable to label LGBTQ+ people mentally ill.

“We do 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’,” the new rules read.

Following the changes, some queer members of staff are said to have called in sick, citing “mental illness”.

In response, Equality Amplified’s letter expressed “outrage and deep concern”, criticising the updates as “a direct threat to the safety, dignity, and well-being of LGBTQ+ individuals worldwide” and “opening the door to further abuse, harassment and discrimination”.

The letter went on to say: “Let us be unequivocal: women are not objects and LGBTQ+ individuals are not mentally ill.

“To suggest being LGBTQ+ is the result of mental illness is factually false and pushes dangerous misinformation. 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.

“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 organisations, including WHO, [the] American Medical Association, and the American Psychological Association, recognise this as fact.

“Allowing such statements to proliferate is more than a policy failure, it actively contributes to a hostile, unsafe environment on Meta’s platforms. It normalises rhetoric that emboldens perpetrators of abuse, harassment and violence, both online and offline.”

The group urged Meta to “reverse these harmful policies immediately and reinstate protections that safeguard against hate speech targeting gender, sexual orientation and identity”, and calling on them to “choose to be a force for good, one that prioritises safety and equality over profit and platform engagement”.

Anything less, they claimed, was a betrayal of users and a gross abdication of moral responsibility.

Just hours after it appeared on Facebook, the post was removed, with Meta citing breaches of cybersecurity, which normally covers the use of phishing tactics or a user seeking to gain access to another person’s account.

Equality Amplified appealed against the removal but Facebook responded by saying: “We’ve confirmed that it does not follow our community standards on cybersecurity.”

In a statement provided exclusively to PinkNews, Equality Amplified co-executive directors Thomas Willett and Matthew Blackwood said: “Meta claims the changes to their hateful conduct policy is to protect free speech, but their actions speak louder than words. 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 legitimise 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.”

In recent days, Meta have rolled back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and removed Pride and LGBTQ+ themes from Facebook Messenger.

Meta Oversight Board co-chairwoman Helle Thorning-Schmidt, Denmark’s former prime minister, has expressed concern, telling the BBC there are “huge problems in what Mark Zuckerberg has announced”, adding: “We welcome looking into fact-checking. We welcome that message, looking into the complexity and perhaps over-enforcement.”

However, she went on to say: “We’re very concerned about gender rights, LGBTQ+ rights, trans people’s rights on the platforms because we are seeing many instances where hate speech can lead to real-life harm, so we will be watching that space very carefully.”

PinkNews approached Meta for comment but have not received a response.

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