Facebook to make changes from December 1 – no more political or religious views on profiles

A spokesperson for Facebook said that people who have these fields filled out are being sent notifcations, letting them know these fields will be removed. (Representational image)

Meta, Facebook's parent company, has confirmed that it will start removing four information fields from profiles, starting December 1st.

From next month, Facebook profiles will no longer contain addresses, religious views, political views or the "interested in" field, which indicates an account's sexual orientation.

The changes were first spotted by Matt Navarra on twitter, who shared a screenshot of the notice that is being sent to Facebook users, that have the fields in question on their profiles.

Facebook is removing religious views and ‘interested in’ info from profiles from 1 December 2022 pic.twitter.com/SKjSrtwUwm

— Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) November 16, 2022

“As part of our efforts to make Facebook easier to navigate and use, we’re removing a handful of profile fields: Interested In, Religious Views, Political Views, and Address,” A Facebook spokesperson said in a statement shared with TechCrunch.

“We’re sending notifications to people who have these fields filled out, letting them know these fields will be removed. This change doesn’t affect anyone’s ability to share this information about themselves elsewhere on Facebook.”

Earlier this month, Meta let go of 11,000 employees from their pay roll, accounting for 13% of the total workforce. Soon after Meta India's managing director Ajit Mohan also left the firm after a four-year stint to join Snap Inc.

On November 17 announced the appointment of Sandhya Devanathan as Vice President of Meta India. Devanathan, who leads the company's gaming vertical in the Asia Pacific (APAC) market, will take on her new role on January 1, 2023 and return to India to lead the company's strategy.

Devanathan will be a part of the APAC leadership team and report to Dan Neary, Vice President, Meta APAC, the company said. Her predecessor Mohan reported directly to Meta's Menlo Park headquarters, whereas other predecessors reported to the social networking firm's Asia Pacific office. Manish Chopra, Director and Head of Partnerships for Facebook India (Meta), is leading the company on an interim basis.

In addition to Mohan, WhatsApp India head Abhijit Bose and Meta India's director of public policy Rajiv Aggarwal are both leaving the company. Shivnath Thukral, the director of public policy at WhatsApp India, has been appointed director of public policy for Meta India, which includes Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.