In addition to scrapping its fact-checkers, Meta last week also loosened its rules around hate speech and abuse — specifically when it comes to sexual orientation and gender identity as well as immigration status.

The changes are worrying advocates for vulnerable groups, who say Meta’s decision to scale back content moderation could lead to real-word harms. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Tuesday that the company will “remove restrictions on topics like immigration and gender that are out of touch with mainstream discourse,” citing “recent elections” as a catalyst.

Meta has added the following to its rules — called community standards — that users are asked to follow:

“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.’ ” In other words, it is now permitted to call gay people mentally ill on Facebook, Threads and Instagram.

“The policy change is a tactic to earn favor with the incoming administration while also reducing business costs related to content moderation,” said Ben Leiner, a lecturer at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business who studies political and technology trends. “This decision will lead to real-world harm, not only in the United States where there has been an uptick in hate speech and disinformation on social media platforms, but also abroad where disinformation on Facebook has accelerated ethnic conflict in places like Myanmar.”

Exxon sues Bonta over ‘smear’

Exxon Mobil Corp. filed a lawsuit alleging that California Attorney General Rob Bonta and several environmental groups made defamatory comments about the oil company’s ability to recycle plastic.

Exxon accused Bonta, the Sierra Group and others of making “false accusations” about its advanced recycling process.

Exxon said in a suit filed in federal court in Texas on Monday that the process works and the claims have damaged its relationship with customers. “With apparently no appreciation for the irony of their claim, Mr. Bonta and his cohorts are now engaging in reverse greenwashing,” according to the complaint. “While posing under the banner of environmentalism, they do damage to genuine recycling programs and to meaningful innovation.”

Bonta, a Democrat, sued Exxon on behalf of California in September over claims of public nuisance, water pollution and misleading environmental marketing. In a statement at the time, Bonta alleged the company “falsely promoted all plastic as recyclable” when in fact the U.S. recycling rate has never exceeded 9%.

Getty to purchase Shutterstock

Getty Images is buying Shutterstock to create a $3.7 billion visual content company.

The companies said Tuesday that they have complementary portfolios, and the transaction creates a broader set of visual content products across still imagery, video, music, 3D and other asset types.

The merger comes at a time when companies that use still images are facing increased competition from images generated by artificial intelligence.

Getty Images CEO Craig Peters will head the new company, which will keep the Getty name.

U.S. opens another Tesla probe

Regulators have opened an investigation into 2.6 million Teslas after reports of crashes involving the use of company technology that allows drivers to remotely command their vehicle to return to them, or move to another location, using a phone app.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration also said Tuesday that Tesla did not report any of the accidents. Tesla is under order to report crashes on “publicly accessible roads” involving vehicles being operated through its autonomous driving technology.

The new investigation follows another probe launched in October looking into the company’s Full Self-Driving system after getting reports of crashes in low-visibility conditions, including one that killed a pedestrian. That investigation covers 2.4 million Teslas from the 2016 through 2024 model years.

Compiled from Associated Press and Bloomberg reports.