Meta Defends ‘Reactive’ Approach to Hate Speech Moderation
Synopsis
The tech giant has defended changes to its content policies after criticism that they permit certain anti-immigrant and anti-LGBTIQ statements on its platforms.
Meta reactive hate speech moderation In the wake of Meta's defense of the new moderation policies in front of Australia's Royal Commission into Antisemitism, as well as fresh data that has indicated that enforcement actions concerning hate speech have dropped by about 79% from the time that policy changes were instituted in January 2025.
In the inquiry, Meta's Global Director of Core Policy, Benjamin Good, testified that the company had deliberately taken steps toward a reactive moderation system to avoid the automated removal of legal speech.
The company now depends more on users' reporting of hate speech rather than the removal of a big chunk of the content automatically before its publication.
This takes place amid ongoing scrutiny of the company, where Roy Morgan's latest Net Trust Score survey put the company among Australia's second-most distrusted brands.
Company Defends Moderation Model
Based on the data provided to the committee, the number of hate speech enforcement cases at Facebook decreased from about 5.8 million in the last quarter of 2024 to about 1.2 million for the September 2025 quarter. Instagram had similar enforcement rates decreasing from about 7.4 million to 2 million for the same period.
However, Good warned that the figures should not be directly attributed to the policy change, stating that there are various issues affecting enforcement volume. He also stated that strict AI enforcement may result in the deletion of political discussions and any attempts to address hate incidents and counter-extremism.
According to Meta, hate speech is rare in their platforms, noting that only about 0.02% of global content contains hate speech.
Global Regulatory Pressure Builds
The policy has drawn criticism from online safety professionals and human rights groups as more reliance on user reporting could lead to abusive material staying online for a longer period.
The problem does not lie within Australia alone. The moderation activities of Meta have been scrutinized according to the EU’s Digital Services Act as well as regulators in the United Kingdom as they impose more responsibility for transparency and online safety among big digital companies.
Meta recorded revenues of $164.5 billion in 2025, and hence, their content moderation activities become a matter of great concern to many government agencies, advertisers, and businesses.
Source: AFR
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Pooja Malik is a business journalist with over six years of experience covering startups, entrepreneurship, and emerging trends. She has previously worked with leading media platforms such as YourStory Media and BW BusinessWorld, where she reported on business, policy, and market developments. Currently, she serves as Editor at The Inspirepreneur Magazine, where she writes and edits stories across business, lifestyle, and travel, with a focus on clarity, accuracy, and reader relevance.
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