At Meta, we seek to protect human rights defenders, as defined by the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, in their work to peacefully promote and protect human rights. This includes professional and citizen journalists; non-violent political activists; and any member of the public who raises a human rights concern. As we note in our Corporate Human Rights Policy, we recognize human rights defenders are a high-risk user group. We strive to offer specific measures to protect their safety and well-being. On social media, these risks can include digital security risks; online attacks against individuals or groups; surveillance; and censorship demands from governments or their proxies.

We strive to offer specific measures to protect their safety and mitigate such risks. These efforts include combatting advanced threat actors targeting HRDs, protecting them from incorrect content removals using Cross-Check, offering advanced security options, taking steps to thwart unauthorized access to the accounts of defenders who are arrested or detained, and partnering with human rights organizations on outreach and training. Another important workstream is our work on civic actors, who may face higher risks due to their contributions to civic affairs, either online or offline. These risks include threats to privacy, reputation, well-being or physical safety. Interventions applied for civic actors include harassment monitoring, enhanced account security and impersonation takedowns.

We condemn all threats, acts of intimidation and retaliation, persecution, and physical and legal attacks against human rights defenders. In 2024 and 2025, we also continued to support the Human Rights Defenders fund: the fund supports devices and security technologies, temporary relocation, and emergency legal and safety assistance, as well as mental health support to human rights defenders and journalists. It also enables the development of peer-to-peer support programs and relevant mental health practitioner networks.

A full statement from Meta (formerly Facebook) is attached above