At last, Meta - the outfit that runs Facebook - has accepted a big, hot helping of biological reality, seasoned with a dash of free speech. Meta's Oversight Board has conceded that criticizing "trans women" merely for being, you know, men, is not hate speech.
Meta’s top public policy officials issued an unexpected warning last year to the company’s Oversight Board: Two upcoming cases, involving videos about trans people, should be treated with extreme sensitivity.
Top executives rarely discuss the inner workings of specific cases with the board, a tribune of journalists, analysts and experts who oversee the social media giant’s treatment of controversial posts.
I'm not savvy as to what Meta's top policy officials mean by "extreme sensitivity," although I suspect they didn't consult with any biologists or Supreme Court justices.
But what came out of the process is, at least, satisfying from a free speech standpoint.
The Oversight Board sided with Meta early Wednesday and ruled that the two posts about trans people didn’t violate the company’s hate-speech rules. The board’s decisions on specific cases are considered binding.
The ruling focuses on disparaging comments accompanying two videos, one showing a trans woman using a woman’s bathroom and another showing a trans girl winning a female sports competition. The videos and posts responding to them circulated on social media last year. In both cases, Meta determined that while posts about the videos questioned a trans person’s gender identity, they didn’t violate its rules against hate speech or harassment.
Granted, Meta is a private company, and the First Amendment doesn't apply. But the company still has some obligation, moral if not legal, to allow a range of viewpoints - and a viewpoint that is consistent with reality, one would think, couldn't really be "hate speech."
Of course, LGBTQ++ shouters were quick to reply.
“This ruling tells LGBTQ people all we need to know about Meta’s attitude towards its LGBTQ users — anti-LGBTQ hate, and especially anti-trans hate is welcome on Meta’s platforms,” Sarah Kate Ellis, CEO of the LGBTQ+ activist group GLAAD, said in a statement. “This is not ‘free speech,’ this is harassment that dehumanizes a vulnerable group of people.”
Good. I suggest, Ms. Ellis, that you boycott Meta forthwith and take all your supporters with you; I suspect that the platform will be a much quieter place without you. Heck, I may even take a look at the Book of Face, something which I've never been tempted to partake of.
Nothing about acknowledging biology is dehumanizing. A video showing a guy using a woman's bathroom isn't dehumanizing; the vast majority of the population has serious issues with this stupid practice. But you want to know what is unfair? You want to know what is discriminatory? Letting boys and men play on girls' and women's sports teams.
Mr. Ellis, if you can't stand on your own hind legs and debate your take on these practices, then that tells us all we need to know. Welcome to the wide, wide world of reality.
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