GLAAD Report Finds Twitter Lagging Behind Other Social Media Platforms in LGBTQ Safety

According to GLAAD, social media platforms are failing to adequately protect LGBTQ users, particularly those who identify as transgender, non-binary, or gender non-conforming, from hate speech and harassment. Among these platforms, Twitter is deemed the least effective.

In its annual social media safety index, GLAAD gave Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Twitter low or failing scores, saying the platforms are not doing enough to keep their users safe. That is, the most improved from a year ago.

Twitter, which Tesla CEO Elon Musk bought last October, was the only exception. GLAAD’s scorecard called it the “most dangerous platform for LGBTQ people” and the only one to see a decrease in its score from last year.

Twitter’s communications staff was gutted after Musk took over the company, and for months inquiries from the press office have been met with only an automated response about poop emojis, as was the case when The Associated Press reached out to the company for comment.

LGBTQ advocates have long warned that hate and harassment online can lead to violence offline. But even if this is not the case, online violence can affect a person’s mental health.

“Not a week goes by that we don’t have someone in our community having a distressing situation where we have to come in and help them stop it and stop the hate and stop the vitriol and stop the attacks,” said GLAAD CEO and President Sarah Kate Ellis, referring to the harmful practice of collecting private or identifying information and disclose it online without the person’s permission, usually in an attempt to harass, threaten, embarrass or retaliate. “It’s really amplified to a level we’ve never seen before.”

Attacks on LGBTQ users on Twitter have increased significantly since Elon Musk took over the company last fall, according to several advocacy groups.

Much of this is due to drastic staff cuts implemented by Musk since the takeover – there simply aren’t enough moderators to deal with problematic tweets that range from hate speech to graphic material to harassment. Musk has also described himself as a “free speech absolutist” who believes Twitter’s previous policy was too restrictive.

In April, for example, Twitter quietly removed a policy on “misgendering or naming transgender individuals,” sparking concerns that the platform is becoming less safe for marginalized groups.

Musk has also repeatedly engaged with far-right extremists and spread misinformation to his 143 million followers.

Twitter, as part of the same overhaul of its site policies, also changed the way it responds to tweets that violate the rules. In the past, offending Tweets were removed, but now the company says it sometimes limits tweeting rather than removing it from the platform entirely.

“Twitter is largely a cesspool now. You can’t post without being attacked. There’s no room for debate. It’s just hand-to-hand combat,” Ellis said. “And that’s what it is. It’s like dogfights in the backyard.”

Ellis complained that before the takeover, Twitter was a “leader” among major social media platforms in protecting LGBTQ users.

Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, rose 15 percentage points to 61 percent and 63 percent on both of its platforms. GLAAD’s index measures 12 LGBTQ-specific indicators, such as clear protections for LGBTQ users against hate and harassment, providing gender pronoun options in profiles, and banning advertising that may be harmful or discriminatory to LGBTQ people.

Although Meta has improved and has strong policies, GLAAD says the company does not consistently enforce them. For example, the group reports that for many abusive messages, Meta will send an automated response stating that it cannot review the message due to the large number of messages it receives.

Meta said in a prepared statement that it is working with “civil society organizations around the world to design policies and create tools that promote a safe online environment,” including getting feedback from LGBTQ safety and advocacy organizations.

TikTok, which rose 14 points to 57 percent, said it was “proud of having a strong policy to protect LGBTQ people from harassment and hate speech, including gender misogyny and name-calling, and we’re constantly working to strengthen our approach based on advice from both our community and experts like GLAAD by”.

Google’s YouTube, on the other hand, received 54 percent, which is nine points more than in 2022.

“Our policies prohibit content that promotes violence or hatred against members of the LGBTQ community. Over the past few years, we’ve made significant progress in our ability to quickly remove this content from our platform and prominently feature official sources in search results and recommendations,” said spokesperson Jack Malon.

In tweets and public statements, Musk has repeatedly said he supports free speech, calling himself a “free speech absolutist” who wants to make Twitter a “digital town square” where people of differing opinions can freely discuss.

The company’s new CEO, Linda Yaccarino, recently tweeted that “you should be free to speak your mind. We all should.”

But GLAAD and other organizations that advocate for marginalized groups point out that unfettered freedom for one group can infringe on the free speech of others.

“Free speech doesn’t mean I have to bully and harass people relentlessly,” said Jenni Olson, GLAAD’s director of social media safety. “And that’s why companies have hate speech policies, because … if someone bullies and harasses me, that actually means I don’t have free speech because I’m afraid to say anything.”