4 ways your feed is expected to change under Meta's new free-speech policy

• Mark Zuckerberg said Meta would loosen some policies in an effort to avoid limiting free speech.
• It'll remove restrictions on topics like gender, meaning users may see more-controversial opinions.
• The policy shift is expected to change how your Facebook, Instagram, and Threads feeds appear.

Don't be surprised if your Instagram or Facebook feed looks different as Mark Zuckerberg's overhaul of Meta's moderation policies rolls out in the coming weeks.

In addition to replacing its third-party fact-checking system with community notes similar to Elon Musk's X, Meta is looking to change things up with a return to promoting political content. Other changes include eliminating restrictions on topics like immigration or gender and shifting enforcement policies on lower-severity violations.

"We're going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies, and restoring free expression on our platforms," Zuckerberg said in a video announcing the changes.

So what will Facebook, Instagram, and Threads look like with the changes? Based on Zuckerberg's comments, this is how your feed could appear different.

You'll likely see a wider range of views — including controversial ones

In the next few weeks, you may notice more-controversial content in your feeds.

In an announcement about the changes, Meta said that it "removed millions of pieces of content" daily in December and that "one to two out of every 10" of those may not have violated its policies.

Meta said that to try to reduce instances of accidentally removing content through its automated moderation tools, it would remove restrictions on frequent topics in political conversations and debates including "immigration, gender identity, and gender."

"It's not right that things can be said on TV or the floor of Congress, but not on our platforms," the company said.

What does that mean in practice? An update on Tuesday to Meta's "Hateful Conduct" policy offers more detail.

"We do allow allegations of mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation," it says, "given political and religious discourse about transgenderism and homosexuality and common non-serious usage of words like 'weird.'"

Less-severe violations won't be reviewed unless people report those posts

Meta said it would loosen its guidelines around enforcement of policy violations and raise the bar for content removal.

The company said its automated systems had "resulted in too many mistakes and too much content being censored" and demoted content thought to violate its guidelines.

Meta said that moving forward it would focus on addressing "illegal and high-severity violations," including those related to terrorism, child sexual exploitation, and drugs.

It said that for "less severe policy violations" it would rely on users to report the content before it considers taking action. Meta said that it would also eliminate most demotions and that it would require a "much higher degree of confidence" and consensus from multiple reviewers to remove content.

You'll see more political content

Following what it described as feedback from people who didn't want to see political content in their feeds, Facebook announced changes in 2021 designed to reduce how much of that content users saw, including content about elections or social issues.

In Tuesday's announcement, the company described that approach as "pretty blunt" and said it would start recommending political content again on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. It said it would take a "more personalized approach" by ranking and showing content based on users' interactions with other content, such as liking a post.

"We are also going to recommend more political content based on these personalized signals and are expanding the options people have to control how much of this content they see," it said.

In 2022, Meta said political content made up about 3% of posts on Facebook. So the change doesn't necessarily mean your feed will be flooded with political news and content — but it may be an increase from what you've seen in recent years.

You won't see fact-check notes anymore — instead, you'll sometimes see community notes

Part of the shift focuses on reversing moderation changes that the Meta executive Joel Kaplan said resulted in "harmless content" being removed and people "wrongly locked up in 'Facebook jail.'"

Meta said it would end its third-party fact-checking program, implemented in 2016, and launch a community-notes program allowing contributors to add context to content.

Meta said it would no longer demote fact-checked content or include full-screen warnings that users have to click through before viewing a post. It said they'd instead see "a much less obtrusive label" indicating they can see additional content.

A Meta spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for additional comment from Business Insider.