GLAAD Slams Social Media Platforms for Being Unsafe for LGBTQ Users
Social media platforms have become increasingly difficult to navigate for a variety of reasons. It’s not as simple as uploading a picture or a video. Users can be deadnamed or misgendered just for posting and existing visibly on apps like Facebook and Instagram; posting simple videos on apps like YouTube and TikTok may lead to their removal, for little to no explanation. This can be confusing, especially when some of these social media platforms have policies meant to protect LGBTQ users.
Protecting LGBTQ users and allowing hate speech seems like a difficult balance to maintain on these platforms. The protection of users from marginalized communities is an afterthought when hate speech against these communities is prioritized. Time and time again we see anti-LGBTQ content promoted during Pride Month across platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.
“Current content moderation and hate speech policies continue to be inadequate, failing to protect LGBTQ users and the LGBTQ community as a whole, while at the same time companies knowingly neglect to enforce the policies that do exist,” GLAAD says.
Seeing how platforms are exposing LGBTQ users to hate speech, GLAAD has created a Social Media Safety Index. The Social Media Safety Index is meant to show how well social media platforms protect LGBTQ users from hate and harassment in terms of overall safety, privacy, and expression. GLAAD tested platforms like Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok on their Safety Index, and none of the platforms scored 50% or higher. Twitter and TikTok are the only apps that have a policy protecting transgender, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming users from targeted deadnaming and misgendering. However, TikTok is the only one that states how it detects violations of this policy.
The lack of these policies, and protections against misgendering and deadnaming, can pose danger for LGBTQ users on these platforms.
“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 can be to urgently create safer products and policies, and then enforce those policies,” says GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis.
It’s difficult to feel safe on social media when being exposed to hateful rhetoric that reflects the current sociopolitical climate.
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