Meta is still allowing misinformation and hate speech to proliferate on Threads – By Ethan Collier (Media Matters) / July 21, 2023
A week after Meta released a statement admitting that the company is not extending its fact-checking program to the new platform, users have continued to flood Threads with racist and anti-LGBTQ hate speech and misinformation.
Since its launch on July 5, Meta’s Threads has surpassed 100 million users, including far-right figures and extremists, and the platform quickly became rife with harmful content as Meta carved out exceptions to its community guidelines.
As Media Matters previously reported, Meta launched Threads without the fact-checking program that aims to prevent the spread of misinformation on Facebook and Instagram and seemingly abandoned hate speech policies. The company even succumbed to complaints from right-wing users such as Ian Miles Cheong and Donald Trump Jr., dropping warning labels the platform initially placed on accounts with a history of spreading misinformation and restoring a post from anti-LGBTQ social media account Libs of TikTok that was previously removed as hate speech.
Since Media Matters last documented misinformation and hate speech on Threads, top right-wing accounts have posted harmful content dozens more times — which Meta has not moderated.
