GLAAD Releases 2nd Annual Social Media Safety Index

GLAAD released its second annual Social Media Safety Index Wednesday, and none of the five platforms it analyzed—Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter or YouTube—received a passing grade. GLAAD president and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis wrote in the introduction to the report, “The evolution of social media has significantly shifted the way that people relate to LGBTQ communities, and GLAAD has continued to innovate to keep step with the rapidly and ever-changing media landscape. Since its launch last year, our Social Media Safety Index is creating and sustaining the industry’s first standard for tackling online hate and intolerance and increasing safety for LGBTQ social media users. The Index and our new Platform Scorecard provide targeted industry recommendations on LGBTQ user safety across all five major social platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok.” She continued, “While we’ve seen important progress from the platforms this past year (many arising from our advocacy efforts), there is an enormous amount of work that must still be done to better protect LGBTQ users. This work is urgent, with our latest research with Community Marketing & Insights finding that 84% of LGBTQ adults agree there are not enough protections on social media to prevent discrimination, harassment or disinformation. 40% of all LGBTQ adults, and 49% of transgender and nonbinary people, do not feel welcomed and safe on social media.” A spokesperson for Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta said, “We prohibit violent or dehumanizing content directed against people who identify as LGBTQ+ and remove claims about someone’s gender identity upon their request. We also work closely with our partners in the civil rights community to identify additional measures we can implement through our products and policies.” The Goodwin Simon Strategic Research team developed the first set of draft indicators that were used to tabulate the Platform Scorecard with GLAAD, revising them following feedback from Ranking Digital Rights, five expert stakeholders working at the intersections of technology and human rights and the Social Media Safety Index advisory committee. The 12 indicators that were used are: Policy commitment to protect LGBTQ users.Gender pronouns on user profiles.Targeted deadnaming and misgendering prohibition.Sexual orientation and gender identity data control.Recommendations based on sexual orientation or gender identity.Third-party advertisers.Harmful advertising prohibition.Actions to restrict harmful content.Stop demonetizing or removing legitimate LGBTQ content.Content moderators training.Commitments to protect LGBTQ users from harm.Diverse workforce. On a scale of one to 100, none of the five platforms even reached 50, with the ranking coming in at: Instagram, 48.38Facebook, 46.3Twitter, 44.7YouTube, 45.11TikTok, 42.15 GLAAD shared its key recommendations for each platform. Instagram: Make a policy commitment to protecting transgender, non-binary and gender non-conforming users from targeted deadnaming and misgendering.Provide all users with tools to express their gender identity.Do not allow third-party advertisers to target users based on their gender identity. Facebook: Make a policy commitment to protecting transgender, non-binary and gender non-conforming users from targeted deadnaming and misgendering.Do not target users with advertising based on their gender identity.Publish comprehensive data on how policies protecting LGBTQ users are enforced. Twitter: Provide additional tools for user expression.Give users more control over their own data.Implement commitment to LGBTQ expression and privacy across the company. YouTube: Make a policy commitment to protect transgender, non-binary and non-conforming users from targeted deadnaming and misgendering.Show greater commitment to addressing demonetization and wrongful removal of LGBTQ creators and their content.Implement commitment to LGBTQ expression and privacy across the company. TikTok: Give users control over their own data.Ban targeted advertising based on sexual orientation and gender identity.Make a commitment to diversify TikTok’s workforce. Ellis concluded, “At this point, after their years of empty apologies and hollow promises, we must also confront the knowledge that social media platforms and companies are prioritizing profit over LGBTQ safety and lives. This is unacceptable.”

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

GLAAD Releases 2nd Annual Social Media Safety Index

None of the 5 platforms it analyzed tallied a 50 on a 1-to-100 scale

David Cohen

About

Subscriptions

Events

Publications

WORK SMARTER - LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED.

Subscribe today!

David Cohen