12/06/2024 | Writer: Oğulcan Özgenç
GLAAD announced the findings of its fourth annual Social Media Safety Index (SMSI) Five of the six major social media platforms – YouTube, X/Twitter, and Meta’s Facebook, Instagram, and Threads – received failing F grades on the SMSI Platform Scorecard for the third consecutive year.
GLAAD, the world’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) media advocacy organization, announced the findings of its fourth annual Social Media Safety Index (SMSI), the respected in-depth report on LGBTQ safety, privacy, and expression.
According to the index, which focuses on anti-LGBTI+ hate and disinformation on social media platforms, Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter), Threads, and YouTube all received an ‘F’ grade. TikTok, while performing slightly better with a ‘D+’ grade, was the highest-ranked platform among the six major social media sites. Despite this, the index indicates that no platform is in good shape.
“Platforms also disproportionately suppress LGBTQ content, including via removal, demonetization, and forms of shadowbanning”
According to the findings of the report Anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and disinformation on social media translates to real-world offline harms. In addition platforms are largely failing to successfully mitigate dangerous anti-LGBTQ hate and disinformation and frequently do not adequately enforce their own policies regarding such content.
GLAAD underlines that platforms are largely failing to successfully mitigate dangerous anti-LGBTQ hate and disinformation and frequently do not adequately enforce their own policies regarding such content. Moreover they also disproportionately suppress LGBTQ content, including via removal, demonetization, and forms of shadowbanning.
GLAAD also urges social media companies to take responsibility with regard to content moderation, algorithms, data protection, and data privacy practices.
Sarah Kate Ellis, President of GLAAD, stated that social media platforms refuse to enforce their own rules to protect LGBTI+ people:
“As we have seen over and over again — there is a direct line from dangerous online rhetoric and targeting to violent offline behavior against the LGBTQ community. Sadly, we also see — over and over again — how social SOCIAL MEDIA SAFETY INDEX 2024 media companies refuse to enforce their own rules to protect LGBTQ people and other marginalized groups despite their assertions that hate speech, bu lying, and harassment are not a lowed on their platforms.”
TikTok received the highest score, while X (Twitter) had the lowest score
Although X (Twitter), YouTube, and TikTok have shown some improvement compared to the data from 2023, social media platforms are still not in a good place concerning anti-LGBTI+ hate and disinformation. According to the findings of the report, in the 2024 SMSI Platform Scorecard, some platforms have shown improvements in their scores since last year. Others have fallen, and overall, the scores remain abysmal, with all platforms other than TikTok receiving F grades (TikTok reached a D+).
TikTok: D+ — 67% (+10 points from 2023)
Facebook: F — 58% (-3 points from 2023)
Instagram: F — 58% (-5 points from 2023)
YouTube: F — 58% (+4 points from 2023)
Threads: F — 51% (new 2024 rating)
Twitter: F — 41% (+8 points from 2023)
Core Recommendations addressing Social Media Platforms
GLAAD also offers recommendations for social media platforms in its 2024 Social Media Safety Index. GLAAD’s recommendations for all social media platforms are as follows:
· Strengthen and enforce existing policies that protect LGBTQ people and others from hate, harassment, and misinformation/disinformation, and also from suppression of legitimate LGBTQ expression.
· Improve moderation including training moderators on the needs of LGBTQ users, and moderate across all languages, cultural contexts, and regions. This also means not being overly reliant on AI.
· Be transparent with regard to content moderation, community guidelines, terms of service policy implementation, algorithm designs, and enforcement reports. Such transparency should be facilitated via working with independent researchers.
· Stop violating privacy/respect data privacy. To protect LGBTQ users from surveillance and discrimination, platforms should reduce the amount of data they collect, infer, and retain. They should cease the practice of targeted surveillance advertising, including the use of algorithmic content recommendation. In addition, they should implement end-to-end encryption by default on all private messaging to protect LGBTQ people from persecution, stalking, and violence.
· Promote civil discourse and proactively message expectations for user behavior, including respecting platform hate and harassment policies.
Click to read the full report at: GLAAD.org/SMSI/2024
Tags: human rights
