Meta rolls back content moderation policies, Molly Rose Foundation warns of harm to teens
Meta rolled back automated content moderation and revised hate speech policies in January 2025. The Molly Rose Foundation, a child safety nonprofit, warned that the changes risk exposing teenagers to harmful content about suicide and self-harm, and called on UK regulator Ofcom to strengthen its requirements on tech platforms.
What happened
In January 2025, Meta announced changes to its content moderation policies, including ending automated scanning of content for certain types of posts and replacing factcheckers with a "community notes" system where users determine whether content is true.
Meta revised policies on hateful conduct, removing injunctions against calling non-binary people "it" and allowing allegations of mental illness or abnormality based on gender or sexual orientation.
Meta stated it will continue to treat content about suicide, self-injury and eating disorders as "high-severity violations" and will use automated systems to scan for such content.
Reported impact
The Molly Rose Foundation warned that the rollback of moderation measures risks taking Facebook and Instagram back to conditions prior to 2017, when Molly Russell died after viewing thousands of Instagram posts about suicide and self-harm.
The foundation expressed concern that content referencing extreme depression and normalising suicide and self-harm behaviours, when served in large volumes, can have devastating effects on children and called for Ofcom to prevent teens from being exposed to "a tsunami of harmful content."
Index analysis
Meta's own data showed that less than 1% of suicide and self-injury content it took action on between July and September 2024 came from user reports, suggesting automated systems had been the primary method of detecting such content.
The foundation urged Ofcom to strengthen the Online Safety Act by requiring firms to proactively scan for all types of intense depression, suicide and self-harm content.
Governance controls
The Molly Rose Foundation called on Ofcom to "urgently strengthen" its approach to platforms and for the regulator to send a clear signal of willingness to act in the interests of children.
The foundation urged Ofcom to ensure that Meta's loosened policies around hate speech would not apply to children and to gain clarification on whether the policies apply to minors.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.