Racist comments targeting politicians tripled since Meta relaxed its rules

After Meta relaxed its content moderation policies in January 2025, analysis of nearly 8 million Facebook comments showed that abusive and racist comments targeting lawmakers from both parties tripled in the six months following the changes. Violent threats and hate speech saw even sharper increases, with violent threats quadrupling from 1,800 to 7,600 and hate speech quadrupling from 6,900 to 30,000 comments. According to the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) which conducted the research, this normalization of threatening and harassing content represents platforms becoming "complicit in normalizing intimidation and harassment of elected officials."

Source: Ars Technica | 2026-06-10