Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube are “effectively unsafe for LGBTQ users,” according to GLAAD’s inaugural Social Media Safety Index.
, released Monday, GLAAD evaluated the “LGBTQ user safety experience” of Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube. Initially, the organization intended to grade each platform, but it changed course after it realized it would be giving all five failing grades, GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said.
According to an Anti-Defamation League survey referred to in the index, 64 percent of LGBTQ respondents reported experiencing online hate and harassment, compared to 46 percent of Muslims, 36 percent of Jews and about a third of Black, Latino and Asian American respondents. GLAAD encouraged Twitter to employ more human moderators to better interpret the legitimate use of LGBTQ terminology and to differentiate legitimate accounts from those of trolls and bad actors. The report said the company has, however, improved user safety by blocking hashtags known for spreading hate and by removing repeated offenders. GLAAD also applauded Twitter for prohibiting misgendering and deadnaming of transgender people.
In response, a YouTube spokesperson thanked GLAAD for its “thoughtful feedback” and said, “Over the last few years, we’ve made significant progress in our ability to quickly remove hateful and harassing content against the LGBTQ+ community that violates our policies, prominently surface content in search results and recommendations from authoritative sources and limit the spread of extreme content by our recommendations.