Meta goes mask-off

I. Notes on a theme

On Wednesday, as news of Meta’s new guidelines permitting homophobic and transphobic speech on its platforms spread through the company, Loredana Crisan spoke up to defend them. 

As she would tell employees in a previously unreported internal post obtained by Platformer, Crisan, who took over as Meta’s Vice President in charge of Facebook Messenger in 2022, is the parent of a non-binary child. The same year she took over Messenger, she took part in a panel discussion posted to Meta’s official LGBTQ+ page celebrating International Non-Binary People’s Day.

Under the company’s new content policies, moderators were told to begin allowing dehumanizing speech such as "This whole nonbinary thing is made up. Those people don't exist, they're just in need of some therapy."

“I know these examples are difficult to read — they sure are for me,” wrote Crisan, who is also a sponsor of Meta’s LGBTQ employee resource group. “That said, it's important to separate what we believe is right from what can be said on our platforms. Honestly, as a parent of a non-binary kid, I want nothing more than for my child to be seen and accepted. But I recognize that shutting down all speech I might find hurtful can have the opposite effect. At best, the lack of dialog changes no hearts. At worst, it hardens them. I know we're all hurting from LGBTQ+ rights being politicized for so long, but I also know that our platforms have given all of us a voice and will continue to do so.”

One way Meta previously gave queer and nonbinary people a voice was to offer them custom themes for their Messenger chats. One theme was based on the trans pride flag; another was based on the non-binary pride flag. Most of Meta’s changes last week addressed public-facing surfaces like the Facebook and Instagram feeds. Messenger themes, though, are entirely private, giving people a chance to express themselves in closed conversations with their friends.

On the other hand, the sort of person who might say that “this whole nonbinary thing is made up” might come across those themes when using Messenger. And so, as 404 Media reported on Friday — two days after Crisan cheered the company’s commitment to elevating all voices — Meta deleted the trans and non-binary themes from Messenger without explanation.

Meta declined to comment on the situation. But it highlights the degree to which even senior leaders at the company are choosing to stand by the company as it chases the approval of the incoming Trump Administration, even when its new policies directly contradict their stated values. 

Maxine Williams, who previously led the company’s now-shuttered diversity, equity, and inclusion team will take on “a new role at Meta focused on accessibility and engagement,” whatever that means. Instagram and Threads chief Adam Mosseri, who long advocated against recommending political content to users of those apps, walked back those remarks in a public post last week.

Perhaps it is more accurate to say: senior leaders are standing by the company for now. It’s clear that many of them had little to no input in these decisions, and very little advance warning. The New York Times reported Friday that CEO Mark Zuckerberg had initiated the changes himself and in consultation with only about a dozen advisers. In doing so, he sidestepped the company’s usual policy development process, which among other things involves discussions with groups that might be negatively affected by changes.

Dave Willner, who helped put together first the content standards for Facebook, described the changes as “incoherent.”