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Advocacy group GLAAD has claimed that Twitter is the worst social media for LGBTQ users as they suffer hate speech and hharassment on the microblogging site.
GLAAD, formerly known as Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, organization created in 1985 that is devoted to countering discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) individuals in the media and promoting understanding, acceptance, and equality
In its annual Social Media Safety Index, GLAAD released Thursday, June 15, the organization gave Facebook, Instagram, TikTok,YouTube and Twitter low scores for not doing enough to keep their users safe.
GLAAD’s scorecard called Twitter “the most dangerous platform for LGBTQ people” and the only one that saw its scores decline from last year.
LGBTQ advocates have long warned that online hate and harassment can lead to violence offline. But even when it does not, online abuse can take a toll on a person’s mental health.
“There isn’t a week that goes by that we don’t have a doxxing situation for somebody in our community that we have to come in and help them stop it and stop the hate, stop the vitriol and stop the attacks,” said GLAAD CEO and President Sarah Kate Ellis referring to the malicious practice that involves gathering private or identifying information and releasing it online without the person’s permission, usually in an attempt to harass, threaten, shame or exact revenge. “It’s really been amped up to a level that we’ve never seen before.”
On Twitter, attacks on LGBTQ users have increased substantially since Elon Musk took over the company last fall, according to the group.
A big part of the reason, GLAAD says is the drastic staffing cuts Musk has enacted since his takeover as there are simply not enough content moderators to handle the flood of problematic tweets that range from hate speech to graphic material and harassment.
Musk has also described himself as a “free-speech absolutist” who believes Twitter’s previous policies were too restricting.
In April, for instance, Twitter quietly removed a policy against the “targeted misgendering or deadnaming of transgender individuals,” raising concerns that the platform is becoming less safe for marginalized groups.
Twitter, as part of the same retooling of its site policies, also changed how it responds to tweets that violate its rules. While in the past, offending tweets were removed, the company now says it will sometimes restrict a tweet instead of removing it from the platform altogether.
“Twitter is is largely a cesspool now. You can’t post without getting attacked. There’s no room for conversation. It is just about hand-to-hand combat,” Ellis said. “And that’s what it is. It’s like backyard dogfights.”
Ellis lamented that before the takeover, Twitter was a “leader” among major social media platforms when it comes to protecting LGBTQ users.
Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, saw a 15 percentage point score increase for both its platforms, to 61% and 63%, respectively.
GLAAD’s index measures 12 LGBTQ-specific indicators, such as explicit protections from hate and harassment for LGBTQ users, offering gender pronoun options on profiles, and prohibiting advertising that could be harmful or discriminatory to LGBTQ people.
While Meta has improved and has strong policies in place, GLAAD says the company does not consistently enforce them. For instance, the group says for many abusive posts that it reports, Meta will send an automated response stating that due to the high volume of reports it receives, it is not able to review the post.
TikTok, which saw its score increase from 14 points to 57%, said it is “proud to have strong policies aimed at protecting LGBTQ+ individuals from harassment and hate speech, including misgendering and deadnaming, and we’re always looking to strengthen our approach, informed both by our community and the advice of experts, such as GLAAD.”
Google’s YouTube, meanwhile, scored 54%, up nine points from 2022.
“Our policies prohibit content that promotes violence or hatred against members of the LGBTQ+ community. Over the last few years, we’ve made significant progress in our ability to quickly remove this content from our platform and prominently surface authoritative sources in search results and recommendations,” said spokesperson Jack Malon.
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