How does their user base want them to be stricter as it applies to private communications? They censor posts on private pages and private messages. How is anything beyond what the law requires in that case not the policing of thought?
I’m not a fan personally that Facebook has extended their anti-spam infrastructure to block some sharing of other disfavored links in PMs (e.g. the open-source gun building website was blocked). But I’m sure there are plenty of anti-gun facebook users who cheered that move.