International nonprofit protecting human rights online by tackling the spread of online harms. US 501(c)(3) non-profit. Media: [email protected]
Center for Countering Digital Hate
“We've seen a horrifying trend of political violence, from the latest attack on the president to the murder of Charlie Kirk to the assassination of Melissa Hortman and her husband,” @imranahmed.bsky.social CEO of @counterhate.com says of Meta's rule change
www.wired.com/story/threat...
New research finds that in the six months after Meta relaxed rules in the name of free speech, violent threats against lawmakers—including President Donald Trump—surged on Facebook.
Meta is making it easier to hate during a time of rising violence.
We found that violent threats against Members of Congress QUADRUPLED after Meta rolled back key safety protections in January 2025.
Read more ️️⤵️
Our research repeatedly highlights Big Tech failures to protect kids from being exposed to sexualized content.
That’s why calls for safety aren’t enough. We need strong enforcement of online safety legislation and implementation of safety-by-design from the beginning to deliver real change.
Hateful conduct on Facebook quadrupled towards Members of Congress, while bullying and harassment doubled, with users posting comments such as:
“I’m praying you get cancer” and “hopefully someone blows your brains out asap.”
Today, Prime Minister Keir Starmer called on Big Tech companies to introduce stronger protections to stop children from sharing sexual images on social media platforms.
We welcome this commitment to protect kids from explicit image abuse.
When Meta announced a rollback of policies on proactive enforcement against violence and incitement, hateful conduct, bullying and harassment in early 2025, we knew what would happen.
Six months later, overall abuse against Members of Congress tripled on Facebook.
Even violent threats against President Trump doubled after the policy changes. In the real world, President Trump faced three violent attacks.
Many of these threats could qualify as felony crimes, but Meta is failing to address them.
Here's what we found: counterhate.com/research/saf...
This is not just about Members of Congress, but a normalization of violence, harassment, and abuse that puts our communities and democracy at risk.
Meta must bring back the safety policies and stop enabling abuse.
Urge Meta to act: act.counterhate.com/page/193469/...
This is not just about Members of Congress, but a normalization of violence, harassment, and abuse that puts our communities and democracy at risk.
Meta must bring back the safety policies and stop enabling abuse.
Urge Meta to act: act.counterhate.com/page/193469/...
We found that violent threats on Facebook against elected officials QUADRUPLED after Meta rolled back key safety policies.
As political violence keeps escalating, Meta is breaking down the barriers to hate 🧵
