If “antifa” is mentioned in the context of “references to historical or recent incidents of violence” — a category so sprawling that it includes “historic wars” and “battles” — that post will also be penalized. Should Meta apply this rule as written, the company could, for instance, restrict posts comparing the antifascist nature of World War II to the contemporary antifa movement.
Potential penalties for violating Community Standards range from a full account ban to comments being hidden or suppressed.
The policy change follows years of Meta and its chief executive Mark Zuckerberg’s pivot of political convenience toward President Donald Trump and his base. Following Trump’s second electoral victory, Meta quickly changed its speech rules to allow for anti-transgender slurs and dehumanization of immigrants, The Intercept previously reported, aligning the company with longtime MAGA culture war grievances.
“Antifa” branding was embraced by anti-fascist soldiers of WWII. That’s a bit of a while ago now!
My first experience with it was when I learned a couple of decades ago that not all skinheads were nazis and that there were in fact anti-fascist skinhead punks who called themselves “Antifa.” To be honest, some of them openly bragged about beating up nazi skinheads so I suppose there was some violence involved. I wouldn’t be surprised if Trump heard about those folks and they’re the ones he means, even though they don’t totally own the idea of “Antifa.”