WASHINGTON, United States: From explicit calls for murder to sexual harassment, violent threats targeting US lawmakers on Facebook rocketed after tech giant Meta rolled back key content moderation policies last year, a tech watchdog said Tuesday.
The report from the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) analyzed nearly eight million Facebook comments targeting 100 members of Congress in the six months before and after Meta eased safeguards in what was billed as an attempt to protect free speech.
Violent threats targeting lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle — including calls for murder — quadrupled, harassment more than doubled, while racist and gendered abuse jumped on the platform, the report said.
CCDH also found that comments inciting violence against President Donald Trump surged after the policy changes, including one that he “deserves a bullet through his head.”
“When platforms stop enforcing their own rules against threats, hate, and harassment, they become complicit in normalizing intimidation and harassment of elected officials,” said Imran Ahmed, chief executive of CCDH.
