WASHINGTON, D.C. — Meta’s Oversight Board, which makes binding decisions on what content should be allowed on Facebook and Instagram, has announced it may ban posts, one likely affiliated with Independent Women’s Forum (IWF), and recommend new policies that could prohibit referring to trans-identifying males as men. With almost 4 billion active users worldwide, Meta’s potential censorship of speech advocating sex-based rights on its enormous platforms threatens the end of a nationwide debate, with enormous consequences for women and for truth. IWF’s legal advocacy arm, Independent Women’s Law Center (IWLC), which fights for the rights of women as equal to, not interchangeable with, men, is driving public comments to a new Meta Oversight Board case.
The announcement by Meta comes in response to two posts that call out the erasure of women’s single-sex spaces. The first video was likely taken by IWF Ambassador Payton McNabb expressing discomfort with a trans-identifying male in a women’s bathroom. The other features a male winning a women’s athletic competition, without universal applause from the audience, probably a track meet from Oregon. If the Oversight Board decides to ban these videos, this will mean that calling trans-identifying males men and disapproving of males in women’s spaces qualify as Bullying and Harassment.
Moreover, Meta’s Oversight Board is using the two cases to consider changes to Meta’s “Bullying and Harassment” Community Standard. While today, “misgendering” (i.e., recognizing that a male is male) is permitted, as is general disapproval of trans-identifying males in women’s sports or spaces, the Oversight Board policy recommendation could crush this already small breathing room for speakers who wish to opine that sex is binary and immutable.
Independent Women’s Law Center Director, May Mailman, said, “If Facebook and Instagram censor content about males winning women’s awards or males entering women’s private spaces (because the approved truth is that these males are women), the consequences are limitless. Not only will women be left without public advocacy, a founding principle of our nation, but this approved truth will obscure actual truth. Men and women exist, as biologically distinct from each other, and each is worthy exactly how they were born. Tell Meta’s Oversight Board to preserve this honest and necessary speech, before it’s too late.”
Riley Gaines, Independent Women’s Forum ambassador and host of OutKick’s “Gaines for Girls,” said, “The stakes could not be higher. If truthful, real-life discussions about biological sex are banned from Meta, the uniqueness of womanhood, not to mention the progress of women, will be eroded. A speech-prohibitive policy would cripple any large-scale movement to protect women’s sports, domestic abuse shelters, prisons, or overnight camps. But censoring the truth has consequences far beyond this. Threatening the reality of sex works to dissolve the very fabric of our society.”
Payton McNabb, Independent Women’s Forum ambassador, said, “I can’t imagine a world in which women must cheer men dominating women’s sports and entering our most vulnerable spaces. I was permanently injured by a trans-identifying male playing on the women’s volleyball team, so I felt surprised and exposed to encounter a male in a women’s bathroom. I should be allowed to express discomfort and share my story. Meta’s Oversight Board has a huge decision before it: can women and our allies advocate for ourselves?”
Independent Women’s Law Center is urging those who stand with women, biological reality, equal opportunity, and free speech to make their voices heard. The Law Center suggests comments from the public should address:
- How sex-based speech (including videos) protects women;
- How sex-based speech informs the public to best accommodate both trans-identifying individuals and women in tandem;
- How censorship of sex-based speech would cause harm in ways the Board may not be thinking about;
- How sex-based speech is not harassment;
- How social transition ultimately harms many trans-identifying individuals; or
- That Meta would lose credibility as an organization for taking such an extreme view.
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Independent Women’s Forum is dedicated to developing and advancing policies that aren’t just well intended but actually enhance people’s freedom, choices, and opportunities.
Independent Women’s Law Center advocates for equal opportunity, individual liberty, and the continued legal relevance of biological sex.