From explicit calls for murder to sexual harassment, violent threats aimed at US lawmakers on Facebook increased after tech giant Meta ditched key content moderation policies last year, a tech watchdog said on Tuesday.
The report from the nonprofit Center to Counter Digital Hate (CCDH) analyzed nearly eight million Facebook comments targeting 100 members of Congress in the six months before and after Meta eased safeguards in what was billed as an effort to protect free speech.
Violent threats aimed at lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle — including calls to kill — quadrupled, harassment doubled, while racist and sexist abuse was hurled at the platform, the report said.
The CCDH also found that comments inciting violence against President Donald Trump increased after the policy changes, including that he “deserves a bullet in the head.”
“When platforms stop enforcing their rules against threats, hate and harassment, they become complicit in normalizing the intimidation and harassment of elected officials,” said Imran Ahmed, CCDH’s chief executive.
“The result is a culture where violence feels easier to justify and radicals feel empowered.”
In a statement, a Meta spokesperson said the Palo Alto company regularly issues public reports tracking “violent content” on its platforms and “the prevalence of hateful behavior did not increase throughout 2025.”
AFP shared the CCDH report with Meta, but the spokesperson said: “We cannot address the allegations in this report as it was not provided to us prior to publication.”
In recent years, politicians and election officials across the United States have reported increasing threats, intimidation and harassment.
Minnesota state legislator Melissa Hortman and her husband were shot and killed in a politically motivated attack last year. In April, a shooting interrupted the White House Correspondents’ Dinner attended by Trump, who had to be evacuated from the dinner at the Washington Hilton Hotel – one of several such incidents.
“When companies reduce oversight in areas like violence, hate and harassment, it should come as no surprise to see these harms increase,” said John Curtis, a Republican senator from Utah, in a statement to CCDH.
“Similarly, the reported increase in abusive and threatening content directed at public officials is deeply concerning, especially in light of recent events.”
The CCDH report comes after the tech giant ditched fact-checkers in the US in January 2025 and handed the lie-detecting task over to ordinary users under a model known as “Community Notes”, popularized by Elon Musk’s X platform.
The decision was widely seen as an attempt to appease the new Trump administration, whose conservative base has long argued that fact-checking on tech platforms was a way to limit free speech and censor right-wing content.
The bill also lifted restrictions on speech about topics such as gender and sexual identity, prompting concern from advocacy groups.
The International Fact-Checking Network has previously warned of devastating consequences if Meta extends its change of fact-checking policies beyond US borders to the company’s programs that cover more than 100 countries.
AFP currently works in 26 languages with Meta’s fact-checking program, including in Asia, Latin America and the European Union.
