Mark Zuckerberg announced that Meta is changing its moderation policy. The announcement was posted on Threads in 6 points and struck me as unusual. I went over these points several times and used ChatGPT to additionally separate the meaning from the PR. Came up to the conclusion that three things were announced and wrapped in zuckspeak:

• Meta will cut moderation
• Meta will relocate teams out of California and Texas
• Meta will support a future initiative by president Trump

From the point of view of a personal blogger who actively uses Facebook, Threads, and formerly Instagram, Meta is my second-biggest source of traffic. I’m interested in them being successful and helping me succeed as well. Unfortunately, I’ve experienced problems with their services and think the problems are not going anywhere with these changes.

The problems that I’ve experienced with Facebook:

• Publicize is no longer possible to my profile. I need to manually add my blog posts. This is likely to keep the traffic within the platform, which is something OpenAI, Google, and X also do
• AI moderation bans/removes my blog posts, for example it banned this scary post and this photo of a bridge in my neighborhood
• The moderation decisions are not reversible. Didn’t get a response to any appeal
• Algorithmic deprioritization of manually shared posts if they contain external links
• Propaganda/triggering articles reach my attention due to insufficient filtering of fake news
• The response to any report I filed against hate speech was that that it doesn’t violate their guidelines (but my fitness achievements violated them)

So whatever moderation they do, it likely hides humans behind multiple layers of automation that leave bloggers vulnerable to frequent unfair treatment.

The problems that Facebook likely needs to solve and are lurking in the 6 changes:

• Many parents from my generation consider Facebook and Instagram as not appropriate for children. We are raising a generation that’s banned from using these services and lives on Youtube, TikTok, and a few messenger apps. Some of these kids are already entering the work force and not spending any time or money on Meta.
• Some social networks thrive because they allow X-rated content (Reddit, X)

My expectation for changes based on these observations

• I think Zuckerberg expresses support to the new administration with a hope to get TikTok banned and Meta not banned, which can direct some young users to Instagram
• I think they’ll let X-rated content slip in on all platforms to increase engagement, following similar moves by other networks, and label that a battle for the freedom of speech.

I don’t expect that any personal blogger will benefit from the changes unless they’re involved in whistleblowing/political criticism. Meanwhile, bloggers like me will continue to be banned when posting about outdoor walking.