Majority oppose Meta’s rollback of safety rules, charity says

The public opposes Meta’s controversial rollback of some content moderation policies to allow more “free expression”, according to a new report from a suicide prevention charity.

A study by the Molly Rose Foundation, which included a poll of more than 2,000 people, found that 86% of adults believe social media platforms should be required by law to proactively search for harmful content.

In January, as part of sweeping changes to its policies, Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg said the social media giant would stop proactively scanning for harmful content in some instances in order to boost free speech and reduce “censorship”, and would rely on users reporting that content to the company.

Asked specifically about Meta’s change to reduce the amount of content it automatically removed, 71% said they opposed it.

The Molly Rose Foundation was set up by the family of Molly Russell in her name after she chose to end her life aged 14, in November 2017, after viewing suicide and self-harm content online.

The charity has previously warned that Meta’s changes could place young people at greater risk of encountering harmful content online, and has urged the Government to strengthen the Online Safety Act with measures to stop social media firms from making policy changes similar to Meta’s.

Andy Burrows, the charity’s chief executive, said: “Mark Zuckerberg’s reckless changes pose a fundamental risk to children and young people.

“We fear they will sharply increase the suicide, self-harm and depression risks they face.

“This is a big first test of regulation and a timid response could cost lives.

“The Online Safety Act is the best vehicle we have to protect young people and society from harm, but Meta knows only too well that unless the legislation is strengthened there is nothing to stop them lighting the touchpaper on a disturbing bonfire of safety measures.

“The public want and expect urgent action to stop us going backwards on online safety.

“Decisions on how we protect our children must be taken by our Prime Minister and democratically elected government, not determined by tech oligarchs and the demands of the White House.”

Speaking when he unveiled the changes in January, Mr Zuckerberg said Meta would “work with President Trump to push back on governments around the world that are going after American companies and pushing to censor more”.

“By going after us and other American companies, it has emboldened other governments to go even further,” he said.

“But now we have the opportunity to restore free expression, and I am excited to take it.”

Meta’s decision to change its content policies was heavily criticised by online safety experts when it was announced in January, with many warning it would boost the spread of harmful content.

As part of the change, which the social media giant began testing last month, Meta said it would loosen content moderation policies on areas it said were now “subject of frequent political discourse and debate”, such as gender and immigration.

Mr Zuckerberg said at the time the company would also “get rid” of fact-checkers and replace them with user-generated community notes – the same system as Elon Musk’s X – because fact-checkers were “too politically biased” and had “destroyed more trust than they had created”.

A spokesperson for the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) said: “The law is clear – all social media companies which operate in the UK must remove illegal content – including content which encourages people to self-harm or take their own lives – and from this summer, they will have to protect children from being exposed to harmful content under the Online Safety Act.

“These laws are the foundation for safer experiences online – we will be monitoring there impact closely and will not hesitate to strengthen protections to keep children safe.”

A Meta spokesperson said: “There is no change to how we define and treat content that encourages suicide, self-injury, and eating disorders.

“We don’t allow it and we’ll continue to use our automated systems to proactively identify and remove it.

“We continue to have community standards, around 40,000 people working on safety and security to help enforce them, and teen accounts in the UK, which automatically limit who can contact teens and the types of content they see.”