Meta to Ban "Misgendering" as “Hate Speech”

[Delphinium20]

As an American who has freedom of speech (we don't have hate speech as a legal concept here), I am BEYOND LIVID that an American company - Facebook - is so blatantly thumbing their nose at our First Amendment and its intent and can get away with it by virtue of them being a 'company' and not the government, despite FB working in concert w/ government requests at times.

While I can and do criticize a lot about my country, I have always been proud of our First Amendment and the last few years have shown me how much it's needed, especially as people and institutions continue to erode women's voices. The spirit of the freedom of speech often extends outside juriprudence protections into places like houses of faith and other private organizations, etc. where speech can legally be curtailed within the group, but often it's not as a matter of Americans believing so strongly in it. I can't tell you how often we say, "well, we have a right to our speak our minds." It's core to our culture, and this is a blatant 'fuck you' to one of the things the US really got right.

There's an opportunity to complain to Meta about this. I can't link to it here per MN guidelines, but you can find it, I'm sure, with a bit of looking. WOLF gives some advice on how to do this. The whole world uses Facebook, so if you care to complain, no matter where you live, please do!

Is this in relation to this consultation? https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5158165-meta-oversight-board-invites-comments-on-removing-transphobic-posts-on-facebook-and-instagram-until-12-september-2024

I was surprised not much interest in this, but for some reason many on FWR and fixated on twiX!

They can continue driving away users, then.

I couldn't find anything online, but here's an email from WoLF:

Meta to Ban "Misgendering" as “Hate Speech” - Submit Your Comment by Sept 12!

The Meta Oversight Board has proposed a review of Facebook’s policies on “misgendering” and “hate speech,” apparently poised to ban “misgendering” across Meta’s platforms.

The case centers around two videos on men in women’s spaces. According to Independent Women’s Forum, which appears to have been targeted by the proposed ban, the first video was a woman expressing discomfort with a trans-identifying male in a women's bathroom. The other features a male winning a women's athletic competition.

If the Oversight Board decides to ban these videos, this will mean that correctly stating the sex of trans-identifying males and disapproving of males in women's spaces qualify as “Bullying and Harassment.”

The Meta Oversight Board is responsible for making moderation policy recommendations to Meta, which includes Facebook and Instagram. The board is seeking public comment on the proposed ban.

Take Action! Tell Meta that correctly identifying someone’s sex is not “Hate Speech”
They have specifically requested feedback on:

The impacts of Meta’s Hate Speech and Bullying and Harassment policies on freedom of expression around gender identity issues, and the rights of transgender people, including minors.
Technical challenges in enforcing bullying and harassment policies at scale, the effectiveness of self-reporting requirements and their impacts on people targeted by bullying or harassment, and comparisons to alternative enforcement approaches.
The sociopolitical context in the United States concerning freedom of expression and the rights of transgender people, especially for access to single-sex spaces and participation in sporting events.

Submit Your Comment to Meta →

Comments are due to Meta by Sept. 12th!

Link to submit comments:

https://www.oversightboard.com/pc/gender-identity-debate-videos/

All of this is in the thread I started and provided the link above.

But nobody was interested.

I assumed because not many on FWR are on facebook, but seem to think the minority platform twiX is more important.

Sorry I missed that one. I searched ahead of my posting, but must not have looked closely enough.

I hope mn never changes on this. Although some stuff does get deleted oddly

To be honest I thought they'd already done that ages ago @Delphinium20

I've certainly been sanctioned for it before.

That was the point of the original thread with the links of how to comment.

As it gave women the opportunity to feed back about their experience of having their rights over ridden by techies who have no experience of real life.

Although not necessarily thinking that they would take women's opinions into account.

And anyway suspect that by now they will have been deluged by the TWAW social media warriors, and remarks such as talking about sex being biological is transphoic.

People often miss threads, its easily done. One reason it's often good to have reposts and more than one thread.

Anyway, thanks OP.and IWTR, I will respond.

I’ve submitted a comment but tbh find that the useful idiots of FB do a pretty good job of shouting down any dissent from the trans cheer squad be kind nonsense anyway. I got thrown out of a breastfeeding support group AND a crochet group for posting (pretty tame) comments about how only women breastfeed and need tampon holders (crocheted ones, natch). I wouldn’t normally engage but posted both times in response to some really weird and slightly unsavoury comments in these groups by (I assume) the usual suspects who hijack groups mostly populated by women. I thought I was helping protect these innocent groups from weirdos and instead got ejected for my bigotry 😂

I agree that facebook like twitter is, if left in the hands of actual users, subjected to the dominant theme of this century (and possibly the entire future) that any reference to women being a biological reality ie sex, will lead to mass shaming and expulsion.

This consultation, is supposedly about getting Meta to realise that there are 2 "valid" beliefs and it is not their busines to take sides.

Nor, as pointed out on the original thread, to think that as a world wide company they should take decisions totally based on US culture, politics.

You would think given the mess US intervention (not unlike the UK) in other countries has led not only to direct but unintended negative outcomes, that they would have thought best not to get on out culturally superior high horse.

Strange how (and I know this has been said before) that a technological development that was idealistically going to let people speak directly to each other, has become the plaything of a few wealthy white men in the USA.

I suppose like the rest of the world, we are just going to have to accept we are way down the pecking order of importance.

I was interested! I did comment on the consultation but did not comment on your thread.

Never underestimate how valuable the stuff you all post (and repost!) is even if sometimes you feel like you are screaming into the void.

I commented but left FB years ago and never joined IG. I find them such an unbelievable waste of time! But, though I may hate it, SoMe does influence culture so commenting on the consultation felt important.

I was interested! I did comment on the consultation but did not comment on your thread.

Sorry, having a bad day.

At the moment FWR seems to be a bit ground hog day - not just on this.

Its like we dont really know how to cope with the new political situation, so we are falling back on "comfort" threads. Where we can say what we have said before (because there isn't anywhere else to say it) but are avoiding the obvious.

What can we do now, to at the very least regain some of the small advances we have made.

I joined FB when I went to uni. You had to have a .ac email address to join in those days. It was great for: arranging social activities; discussing lectures, tutorials and seminars; maintaining relationships with friends who had gone to other unis; keeping in touch during the vacations; and sharing experiences of the shift into actual adulthood. Then the Brexit referendum happened. Suddenly my feed filled with posts telling me that I must vote Leave or I must vote Remain. The friendship element vanished. I left in 2016 and have never returned.

As others have said. The problem with Facebook is the groups are self policing so you can get thrown off if the administrator doesn't like what you're saying. I wouldn't voice my views on there anyway because I know some of my friends on there (including family members) would be horrified and embarrassed if I came out as gender critical. (I'm happy to discuss my beliefs in person but not on an open forum where all nuance is lost). I don't really enjoy Facebook and rarely use it but I will respond to the consultation. Thanks for raising it again.

re facebook - I too have had problems with facebook groups. I think most online groups have power struggles (even happened on a mutual aid group during covid )

But its value for me has been through commenting on some group pages eg WPUK you make new FB friends who then go on to be a real source of feminist info, activity.

I now have fb "friends" in countries I have never been to and probably never will, but have learnt or been made aware of many women's issues.

I didn't have problems during Brexit, but do remember losing (being dumped - the shame!) by women I thought I had common interests in, because i wasn't prepared "to be kind" post consultation on GRA (I think).

I agree the groups can be difficult, but group dynamics in real life can be awful. But I find the level of information and discussion dare I say "more adult" than the sort of headline grabbing culture of twitter.

Also, twitter is just a tiny portion on the online social media world, I think even if only by some random chance I interact with someone who is quite isolated or whatever and can share info it is worthwhile.

And judging by the age demographic far more likely to potential make contact with budding dinasours who are just waiting to express their inner rage.

And that's part of the point. Given the reach of facebook really important it doesn't get totally transed.

Stats here - Facebook number 1 and twitter is twelfth.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/

Its only the msm that makes twitter look important, whereas for them its just a source of shock horror headlines.