{"id":833013,"date":"2023-06-15T09:02:23","date_gmt":"2023-06-15T13:02:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glaad.org\/?post_type=publication&p=833013"},"modified":"2023-06-15T09:02:23","modified_gmt":"2023-06-15T13:02:23","slug":"social-media-safety-index-2023","status":"publish","type":"publication","link":"https:\/\/glaad.org\/publications\/social-media-safety-index-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"2023 Social Media Safety Index"},"content":{"rendered":"

GLAAD’s third annual Social Media Safety Index<\/em> (SMSI), a report on LGBTQ user safety found all five major social media platforms \u2013 Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Twitter \u2013 received low and failing scores on the SMSI Platform Scorecard for the second consecutive year. The SMSI found that the platforms continue to fail at enforcing the safeguarding of LGBTQ users from online hate speech, fail at providing transparency in the use of LGBTQ-specific user data and fail in expressing commitments to protecting LGBTQ users, specifically, policies and commitments to protect transgender, nonbinary, and gender non-conforming users from being targeted.<\/p>\n

The 2023 SMSI also takes a comprehensive look at how anti-LGBTQ online hate speech incites, spreads and manifests real-world harm and violence. The study explores the realities around how false and baseless tropes, hateful slurs and rhetoric, misinformation and lies and conspiracy theories about LGBTQ people often go unchecked across social platforms and that hate speech and other content policies are often not enforced around such content. GLAAD calls on social media platforms to take responsibility for ineffective policies, products and algorithms that create a dangerous environment for LGBTQ users, noting that actions from the platforms are limited because \u201cenragement leads to profitable engagement.\u201d<\/p>\n

GLAAD\u2019s Platform Scorecard in the 2023 SMSI found Twitter as the most dangerous platform for LGBTQ people. Of the five major platforms included in this study, Twitter was the only platform with scores that declined from last year\u2019s report.<\/p>\n

From GLAAD President and CEO, Sarah Kate Ellis: \u201c<\/strong>Dehumanizing anti-LGBTQ content on social media such as misinformation and hate have an outsized impact on real world violence and harmful anti-LGBTQ legislation, but social media platforms too often fail at enforcing their own policies regarding such content. Especially as many of the companies behind these platforms recognize Pride month, they should recognize their roles in creating a dangerous environment for LGBTQ Americans and urgently take meaningful action.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

Read the full report now<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

GLAAD\u2019s Social Media Safety Index, launched in 2021, is the industry\u2019s first standard for tackling online anti-LGBTQ hate, and increasing safety for LGBTQ social media users.<\/p>\n

In part as a result of the company\u2019s April 2023 removal of trans and nonbinary user protections, Twitter was the sole platform to decrease its score from 2022, diving 12 points from 45% to 33%.<\/p>\n

The report also documents inconsistencies from other social media platforms. For example,\u00a0 Meta\u2019s hate speech policies state a prohibition of anti-LGBTQ \u201cgroomer\u201d content, but the SMSI shows that the company regularly does not enforce the policy.<\/p>\n

The SMSI Platform Scorecard: <\/strong>GLAAD\u2019s SMSI Scorecard, and the SMSI report overall have a clear throughline: Social media platforms must do better and follow through on their commitments set out in their own policies, products and safeguards. Platforms must improve inadequate content moderation and enforcement (including issues with both failure to act on anti-LGBTQ hateful content and over-moderation\/censorship of LGBTQ users); harmful and polarizing algorithms; and an overall lack of transparency and accountability across the industry, among many other issues. LGBTQ users, as well as other marginalized communities who are uniquely vulnerable to hate, harassment, and discrimination, bear the brunt of these issues.<\/p>\n

Created in partnership with Goodwin Simon Strategic Research and the tech accountability organization, Ranking Digital Rights, the SMSI Platform Scorecard is an evaluation of LGBTQ safety, privacy, and expression on five major platforms (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Twitter) based on 12 LGBTQ-specific indicators including explicit protections from hate and harassment for LGBTQ users, offering gender pronoun options on profiles, and prohibiting advertising that could be harmful and\/or discriminatory to LGBTQ people. All platforms\u2019 scores, except that of Twitter, improved from 2022 scores. Safety and the quality of safeguarding of LGBTQ users remain unsatisfactory.<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n