San Francisco – The main social media platforms such as Tiktok, Instagram and X have not been able to protect LGBTQ+ users from hate and harassment, in part, because intentionally they retreated previous security practices, the Glaad defense group said on Tuesday in their annual social security index in social networks.
The report said the recent “reversals of the unprecedented hate speech policy” of Instagram and Facebook Parent. Platform goal And Google YouTube is “actively undermining the safety of LGBTQ people” both online and offline. Meta reversal now allows users to call LGBTQ people “mentally ill”, among other changes in policies.
The command box assigns numerical qualifications to each platform regarding the safety, privacy and expression LGBTQ. Elon Musk’s X received the lowest score at 30 out of 100, while Tiktok arrived in more than 56 years. Meta’s Facebook, Instagram, Threads and Google YouTube were in the 40s. The group’s methodology has changed since last year, so the scores are not directly comparable to previous reports.
“At a time when the violence and harassment of the real world against LGBTQ people are increasing, social media companies are benefiting from the flames of anti-LGBTQ hatred instead of guaranteeing the basic security of LGBTQ users,” said Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of Glaad.
While X has received the lowest scores since Musk’s acquisition of the platform in 2022, when called Twitter, the goal setback can be greatly attributed to its recent policy change. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in January that Meta is eliminating restrictions on issues such as immigration and gender “that are out of contact with conventional discourse”, citing “recent elections” as a catalyst. Glaad calls the “particularly extreme” reversion.
Meta representatives, Tiktok and X did not immediately respond to the messages to comment on Monday afternoon.
Glaad said that Google recently eliminated the “identity and gender expression” of the list of YouTube protected characteristic groups, which suggests that the platform “no longer protects transgender people, non -binary and non -compliance with gender of hate and discrimination.”
Google says this is not the case.
“Us confirmed Earlier this year, our hate speech policy has not changed. We have strict policies against the content that promotes hatred or violence against members of the LGBTQ+ community and we remain attentive in our efforts to quickly detect and eliminate this content, “Google said in a statement.
Although Glaad recognizes Google’s statement, the organization emphasizes that gender identity has not been restored as a protected characteristic on YouTube Hate speech policy page.
“YouTube should reverse this dangerous policy change and update its ‘hate speech’ policy to expressly include gender identity and expression as a protected feature,” says the report.
Glaad’s report makes policy recommendations to protect LGBTQ users, although it is not clear if the platforms will take it, since many have delayed such protections. For example, Glaad says that platforms should protect LGBTQ people from hate, harassment and violence, prohibit the tensorized and “dead” of transgender users and explain the steps needed to stop the elimination unfairly eliminating or demonizing legitimate accounts and content related to LGBTQ issues.
