GLAAD: Social Media Firms Failing to Protect Online LGBTQ+ Users

Social media giants Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube failed to keep LGBTQ+ users safe amid an unprecedented wave of online hate, according to the LGBTQ+ media advocacy group GLAAD.

The five largest social media platforms received fail grades from GLAAD specifically for online LGBTQ+ safety for the second year in a row. The platforms were reviewed on measures like explicit protections from hate and harassment for LGBTQ+ users, offering gender pronoun options on profiles, and prohibiting advertising that could be harmful and/or discriminatory to LGBTQ+ people. All platforms scored under 50 out of a possible 100, confirmed GLAAD’s latest report. Instagram scored 48%, Facebook got 46%, Twitter and YouTube scored 45%, and TikTok 43%.

 “Today’s political and cultural landscapes demonstrate the real-life harmful effects of anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and misinformation online,” said GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis. “The hate and harassment, as well as misinformation and flat-out lies about LGBTQ+ people, that go viral on social media are creating real-world dangers, from legislation that harms our community to the recent threats of violence at Pride gatherings. Social media platforms are active participants in the rise of anti-LGBTQ+ cultural climate and their only response should be to urgently create safer products and policies, and then enforce those policies.”

SUSTAINED ONLINE HARASSMENT

GLAAD’s other newly released 2022 ADL Online Hate and Harassment report found that 66% of LGBTQ+ users experienced harassment online, with 54% of LGBTQ+ users reporting severe harassment including sustained harassment, stalking, or doxxing (searching for and publishing private or identifying information about a particular individual on the internet, typically with malicious intent).

Data from its May 2022 study conducted with Community Marketing & Insights also revealed that 84% of LGBTQ+ adults agree there are not enough protections on social media to prevent discrimination, harassment, or disinformation. In fact, 40% of all LGBTQ+ adults, and 49% of transgender and nonbinary people, do not feel welcomed and safe on social media. 

The Social Media Safety Index (SMSI) also provides insights and recommendations for each platform to improve LGBTQ+ safety. Trends reported in the SMSI revealed: that

• Anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric on social media translates to real-life harm, including reported levels of increased severe harassment for LGBTQ users when compared to 2021.
• The problem of anti-LGBTQ+ hate speech and misinformation continues to be a public health and safety issue. Viral misinformation and inaccuracies have been cited as drivers of many of the nearly 250 anti-LGBTQ bills introduced in states around the country this year. Platforms are largely meeting this dangerous misinformation with inaction and often do not enforce their own policies regarding such content.
• Issues like the promotion of so-called “conversion therapy,” targeted misgendering and deadnaming, and lack of true transparency reporting, remain prevalent for select platforms. Only select platforms prohibit actions like targeted misgendering and the promotion of conversion therapy. These actions need to be prohibited across the industry.
• Companies possess the tools they need to effectively curb anti-LGBTQ+ hate and rhetoric but instead are prioritising profit over LGBTQ+ safety and lives.

RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE ONLINE SAFETY

GLAAD’s report also provided recommendations for all platforms. Guidelines include:

• ·   Improving the design of algorithms that currently circulate and amplify harmful content, extremism and hate.
• ·   Training moderators to understand the needs of LGBTQ+ users, and to moderate across all languages, cultural contexts and regions.
• ·   Being transparent with regard to content moderation, community guidelines and terms of service policy implementation, and algorithm designs.
• ·   Strengthening and enforcing existing community guidelines and terms of service that protect LGBTQ+ people and others.
• ·   Respecting data privacy, especially where LGBTQ+ people are vulnerable to serious harms and violence. This includes ceasing the practice of targeted surveillance advertising, in which companies use powerful algorithms to recommend content to users in order to maximise profit.

The May 2021 inaugural edition of the Index was the first-ever and only tech-industry baseline of LGBTQ+ user safety. In this past year, GLAAD has worked with platforms and applauded major achievements within the tech accountability space, including TikTok’s amendment to its community guidelines in March 2022 in which an explicit prohibition against targeted misgendering and deadnaming was enacted, as recommended by SMSI last year. As noted in this year’s SMSI, such a prohibition does not exist on Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube.

ONLINE SAFETY RECOMMENDATIONS

“All platforms should follow the lead of TikTok and Twitter and should immediately incorporate an explicit prohibition against targeted misgendering and deadnaming of transgender and non-binary people into hateful conduct policies,” stated GLAAD’s Senior Director of Social Media Safety, Jenni Olson. “This recommendation remains an especially high priority in our current landscape where anti-trans rhetoric and attacks are so prevalent, vicious, and harmful. We also urge these companies to effectively moderate such content and to enforce these policies.”

Prior to releasing the findings, GLAAD held briefings with each platform named in the Social Media Safety Index to review issues that LGBTQ+ users face and the recommendations described in the report. It said it will continue to maintain an ongoing dialogue about LGBTQ+ safety amongst tech industry leaders throughout 2022 and beyond. GLAAD will also spotlight new and existing safety issues facing LGBTQ+ users in real-time, both to the platforms and to the press and public.

Commenting on the results, Jack Malon, a spokesperson for YouTube said: “It’s against our policies to promote violence or hatred against members of the LGBTQ+ community, and over the last few years, we’ve made significant progress in our ability to quickly remove hateful and harassing content, and to prominently surface content in search results and recommendations from authoritative sources. This work is ongoing and we appreciate the thoughtful feedback from GLAAD.”

A spokesperson for TikTok added that the platform “is committed to supporting and uplifting LGBTQ+ voices”, and that it “works hard to create an inclusive environment for LGBTQ+ people to thrive”. 

Click here to read the full report. 

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