Meta boycott: Facebook, Instagram users delete accounts over policy changes
After Meta and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced changes that shifted the company and its policies to the right, some users are fleeing the company’s platforms.
After Meta and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a series of changes that shifted the company and its policies to the right ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s second term, some users are fleeing the company’s platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
In the barrage of changes made in recent weeks, the company ended its third-party fact-checking program in the United States and said it would pull back on content moderation around political discourse. Instead, Meta will use a community notes system similar to Elon Musk’s X. Updates to Meta’s policy on hateful conduct include that LGBTQ people can now be called mentally ill because of their identities. Meta also disbanded its diversity, equity and inclusion team.
Zuckerberg isn’t the only Big Tech billionaire currying favor with the incoming president. Musk and Jeff Bezos will both be seated in prominent spots at Trump’s inauguration Monday. But Meta’s changes, along with Zuckerberg’s personal appeals to Trump, have caused a cascade of reactions among its users.
NBC News reviewed hundreds of posts and comments across various social media platforms that said users would delete their Meta accounts, stop posting or boycott the company in response to the changes. The exodus is reminiscent of when X (formerly Twitter) users left the platform in large numbers after the 2024 election.
“I no longer feel safe to post on either platform as a queer Chicana woman,” said Marie Valencia, a full-time artist who had more than 20,000 followers on Facebook and Instagram before she stopped posting. The term Chicana refers to American women of Mexican descent. “I have seen a steady stream of folks abandoning their profiles as well, especially in the last couple weeks as Meta has dismantled DEI and speech protections for those most vulnerable online.”
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