Mike Drop: Should We Leave Meta?
Is it solidarity or privilege to leave?
On January 7th, 2025 Meta announced changes in its content moderation policies like fact-checking and flagging hate speech against the LGBTQ+ community.
Meta’s new guidelines state:
“We do allow allegations of mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation, given political and religious discourse about transgenderism and homosexuality and common non-serious usage of words like ‘weird,’”
What we’re seeing here is, given legal permission, empires like Meta will choose profitability over the safety and well-being of vulnerable groups. Let’s recognize that just because extremely rich, white people feel strongly about something doesn’t make it factual.
We don’t get to vote on whether queer people exist or if their immutable traits are human. We can vote on what kind of society we want to be and who deserves freedom and protection but that doesn’t make what we decide “right,” it makes it dangerous.
Platforms that host and regulate where the conversations are happening impact the consequences of those conversations. As bullies continue to gain permission to be harmful in their discrimination, they grow emboldened and take greater risks in silencing and erasing the people they don’t like.
Permitting hate speech and discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community because bigoted homophobes and transphobes don’t like being held accountable or expected to learn isn’t an acceptable moral decision.
Granted, it shouldn’t be on CEOs, Business moguls and tech nerds to shoulder the moral consequences of social discourse who are not educated on the ethics of human rights and power dynamics. In fact, in a capitalist machine, they are de-incentivized to really understand either.
But queer people are not a political or religious issue. Queer-phobia is.
I want to make sure I’m quite clear about my thoughts about Meta’s decision to change their policies in light of Trump’s presidency.
That being said, there is a nuance to how we the people respond to this decision. I shared my thoughts about Meta’s update on Instagram and saw a trend that I’ve noticed is a knee-jerk reaction for some people as if it’s the obvious and necessary next-step for us.
Here are some screenshots of comments expressing what I’m talking about:
Now, let me be very clear, we are all responsible to look after our mental and emotional health. If being in any space is having adverse effects on us that we cannot manage, it is the most responsible choice to remove ourselves from those influences. I’m a big supporter of this.
But has this protocol mutated into “I’m going to leave any space, group or platform that does something I don’t agree with?”
Carrie Underwood announced she will sing at Trump’s inauguration. Many people messaged me directly expressing how Carrie is trash or they won’t be listening to her music anymore. I understand rejecting an artist for betraying you politically.
However, Facebook and Instagram are not a single artist or person, they are MASSIVE social media platforms. In 2024, Facebook had 3 billion monthly users, Instagram 2.4 billion. To leave the space where ideas are shared and like-minded content creators and users have found each other is no small thing. Regardless of how we feel about Mark Zuckerberg as an individual or Meta as a company, the reality is that Meta owns and manages a mega highway of connection in society.
For users to simply “stop using Meta platforms” because they don’t like the policy change is to throw the baby out with the bathwater. The amount of power that groups of people have found in accessing each other through Meta over the years is incomparable to the idiots and idiot comments that have and will be made on the platform.
I’m not convinced the knee-jerk reaction of “I’m leaving” is the most evolved or healthiest way to participate in spaces like this. This attitude feels akin to a tantrum to me. I, too, am tired of the homophobia, transphobia, racism, sexism, misogyny and heterosexism that consistently appear in my comment section. I don’t want to have to trudge through the haters and trolls. Period.
However, the impact and difference it makes to connect with queer people who need support, connection and advocacy far outweighs the cost. The hateful comments pale in comparison to the joy, validation and empowerment that happens. I remember when I took my first couple of steps out of the closet, it was content creators on Youtube and Facebook and Instagram and TikTok who were my solace, bastion of safety and beacons of hope through that darkness.
To my queer siblings in particular:
I’m so thankful the queer people who came before me didn’t merely accept the seedy bars, bathrooms and truck stops as the places for queer people to exist in society. I’m glad they fought for our right to exist in public like anyone else. That didn’t come easily, they had to fight. I’m glad they didn’t encounter bigotry and say, “we’re leaving.”
To simply leave is more a commentary on privilege than it is on morality. To leave if we have the resilience to push through the opposition is to choose our own comfort over our responsibility to help build a world where those who come after us are safer than we were. The work isn’t done and it’s odd to admit this but our allies are not going to get us there on their own. We still need the queer community to push and lead and speak and embody the way forward.
To those who have professed or are still thinking of abandoning Meta spaces because of Mark Zuckerberg’s disappointing leadership and ethical failure, I implore you to reconsider. Don’t give up this information superhighway, leaving the dominating voices to be those who want to erase us. If you have the wherewithal to stick with us, please stay and fight. Let’s take this next move as inspiration to speak louder and more persistently against injustice and stand up for those who need our support.
Queer people deserve safe and equal space in society and if history has shown us anything, the straight community isn’t just going to give it to us.