Facebook & Instagram Users Cancel Accounts Due to Policy Changes

Following a series of changes made by Meta and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg that pushed the business and its policies to the right ahead of President-elect Donald Trump's second term, some users have discontinued the company's services, including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

In a series of recent adjustments, the company stopped its third-party fact-checking program in the United States and stated that it would reduce content filtering in political discourse. 

Instead, Meta will employ a community notes system akin to Elon Musk's X. LGBTQ persons can now be labeled as mentally ill because of their identities, according to updates to Meta's hostile behavior code. 

Meta also terminated the diversity, equality, and inclusion team. 

Meta boycott due to policy changes

"I no longer feel safe posting on either platform as a queer Chicana woman," said Marie Valencia, a full-time artist with over 20,000 Facebook and Instagram followers before she stopped posting. 

Chicana refers to American women of Mexican descent. "I have seen a steady stream of folks abandoning their profiles as well, especially in the last couple weeks as Meta has dismantled DEI and speech protections for those most vulnerable online."

Valencia now posts on Bluesky, an alternative to X, as well as Amigahood, a platform for Latina women. "Meta will become another X," Valencia explained. 

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