California, U.S., January 8 (HBTV): Facebook and Instagram have relaxed their public rules on hate speech against transgender people, women, and immigrants as executives seek to curry favor with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.

In an update to its hate speech policy on Tuesday, Facebook and Instagram’s parent company Meta deleted numerous clauses banning specific derogatory statements about protected groups, while adding detailed exceptions for anti-trans speech.

Gone is the clause saying you cannot compare women to "household objects or property." Also removed is a prohibition on claiming that there is "no such thing" as a trans or gay person.

Previously you could not say that a protected group spreads or is responsible for Covid-19, but the new changes removed that line, which seems to allow for anti-Chinese rhetoric.

Added in to the policy are new clauses apparently designed to explicitly allow common anti-trans arguments, such as advocating for trans people to be banned from public bathrooms, school sports, or certain jobs.

"We do allow allegations of mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation," reads one exception. The same section previously said that users couldn’t call protected groups “freaks” or “abnormal”.

Meta also replaced language banning “generalizations” about a protected group’s “inferiority” on the basis of “intellectual capacity”. Now the new language merely bans “unsupported comparisons” between protected groups’ on the basis of their “inherent intellectual capacity” — seemingly opening the door to scientific racism.

The new policy is among a of raft Republican-friendly reforms announced by Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday, alongside abolishing Meta's fact-checking program and moving its content moderation team from California to Texas. Meta also announced Monday that Ultimate Fighting Championship president and Trump ally Dana White will join its board of directors. 

(Inputs from The Independent and Yahoo! News)