Civil Rights Groups Warn Threads Could ‘Become As Toxic As Twitter’

• Civil rights groups warn that Threads will “become as toxic as Twitter” without better moderation.
• In a letter, the groups urged Mark Zuckerberg to implement more rigorous moderation standards. 
• They said hateful speech and disinformation has already been rising on the brand-new platform. 

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg needs to better moderate his new Threads platform, or it could “become as toxic as Twitter,” civil rights, digital justice, and pro-democracy groups warned in an open letter to Zuckerberg and the head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri.

The letter — led by Free Press, Accountable Tech, and Media Matters for America — says the groups have already seen indications that “new users have been testing the boundaries of the platform’s moderation and enforcement.”

The letter cites “neo-Nazi rhetoric,” “election lies,” “bigoted slurs,” “COVID-19 conspiracies,” and more as examples of hateful speech that they have seen rising on Threads, which launched last week. 

Meta’s press team did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment. 

“Meta must implement basic moderation safeguards on Threads now or the platform will become as toxic as Twitter,” Nora Benavidez, senior counsel at Free Press, said in a press release about the letter.

She added that it’s imperative for Meta to establish better content moderation in the lead-up to the 2024 election to prevent the spread of hateful speech and disinformation. 

The civil rights groups also accused Meta of “purposefully not extending Instagram’s fact-checking program to the platform and capitulating to bad actors.”