Regulating online hate speech 'not censorship': UN rights chief

The UN rights chief insisted Friday that regulating hate speech and harmful content online "is not censorship", days after Meta scrapped its fact-checking programme on Facebook and Instagram citing censorship concerns.

"Allowing hate speech and harmful content online has real world consequences. Regulating such content is not censorship," Volker Turk said on X.

"My Office calls for accountability and governance in the digital space, in line with human rights."

Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg announced Tuesday the group would "get rid of fact-checkers" and replace them with community-based posts, starting in the United States, complaining the programme had made "too many mistakes and too much censorship".

Instead, Meta platforms including Facebook and Instagram, "would use community notes similar to X (formerly Twitter), starting in the US," he added.

Meta's surprise announcement echoed long-standing complaints by Trump's Republican Party and X owner Elon Musk about fact-checking, which many conservatives see as censorship.

Facebook currently pays to use fact checks from around 80 organisations globally on the platform, as well as on WhatsApp and Instagram.

AFP currently works in 26 languages with Facebook's fact-checking scheme.

Without mentioning Meta or X, Turk elaborated on his comments on LinkedIn, cautioning that social media had the "demonstrated ability to fuel conflict, incite hatred and threaten safety".

"When at its best, social media is a place where people with divergent views can exchange, if not always agree," he said.

However, he said, "when we call efforts to create safe online spaces 'censorship', we ignore the fact that unregulated space means some people are silenced – in particular those whose voices are often marginalised".

"At the same time, allowing hatred online limits free expression and may result in real world harms."

Turk said "freedom of expression thrives when diverse voices can be heard without enabling harm or disinformation".

Accountability and governance in digital spaces, he said, "safeguards public discourse, builds trust, and protects the dignity of all".

Asked about whether the UN might reevaluate its presence on Meta and X, UN spokesman Michele Zaccheo said the organisation was "constantly watching this space and evaluating it".

"There is no doubt that on a number of social media platforms there is a lot of hate speech, which we have been very vocal about", he told reporters, adding that UN agencies had been victims of "misinformation campaigns and disinformation campaigns".

But for now, he said, "it's important for us to be present with fact-based information".

World Health Organization spokeswoman Margaret Harris agreed.

"Our role is to provide good science-based health information, and we need to provide that wherever people are looking for it," she told reporters.

"So we will (be) across all platforms, whenever possible."