Mark Zuckerberg needs to better moderate Threads or it'll 'become as toxic as Twitter,' civil rights groups warn

• 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.

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 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."

A Meta spokesperson told Insider, "Our industry leading integrity enforcement tools and human review are wired into Threads. Like all of our apps, hate speech policies apply."

"Additionally, we match misinformation ratings from independent fact checkers to content across our other apps, including Threads," the spokesperson added. "We are considering additional ways to address misinformation in future updates."