by Joe Siegel

GLAAD (formerly the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) issued a scathing report examining safety on social media. GLAAD’s 2025 Social Media Safety Index evaluated several platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

“The recent major ideological shifts from Meta” — owner of Facebook and Instagram — “have been particularly extreme,” according to Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of GLAAD. “Earlier this year, the company announced it would retreat from established norms of trust and safety in favor of welcoming hate speech, and further place the onus on users to block blatantly harmful content that would otherwise violate its policies.”

Ellis noted how many current social media company policies are in line with recent political changes.

“Given the current dehumanizing attacks on LGBTQ people and new challenges to social media safety, this year’s SMSI includes refreshed strategies to advance our mission. When companies put our community — and other marginalized communities — at risk, GLAAD leads with facts, education, organizing, and humanity,” Ellis noted.

The report’s Platform Scorecard assigns numeric ratings to each platform with regard to LGBTQ safety, privacy, and expression. Elon Musk’s X/Twitter received the lowest score at 30 out of 100, while TikTok came in highest at 56. Meta’s Facebook, Instagram, Threads and Google’s YouTube were in the 40s.

The Bay Area Reporter took on this issue, publishing an editorial about social media on June 11. The editorial board wrote, “Social media companies haven’t exactly been the most LGBTQ-friendly. That realization was brought to the fore in January, when Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, announced it was doing away with independent fact-checkers. It now includes new exceptions expressly allowing hate speech, such as stating that LGBTQ people are ‘abnormal’ and ‘mentally ill.’ YouTube, owned by Google, has also taken significant steps backward, removing gender identity as a protected characteristic in its hate speech policy.”

The BAR editorial also noted, “Jenni Olson, a lesbian who is senior director of GLAAD’s social media safety program, told us in a recent phone interview that this year the LGBTQ media watchdog agency has zeroed in on Meta and YouTube. ‘I still can’t believe how radical it is,’ she said of the changes at the two social media giants. ‘The extreme anti-LGBTQ animus coming from Meta is just shocking. Equally shocking is YouTube’s removal of gender identity as protected hate speech.’

Olson noted that YouTube denies its hate speech policy has changed, according to BAR. “‘But it no longer says gender identity and expression,’ she said. YouTube is the only company in GLAAD’s survey that does not have a policy prohibiting targeting misgendering and deadnaming, the GLAAD report stated. While YouTube has a public-facing policy that clearly prohibits advertising content promoting so-called gay conversion therapy, it does not have a similar policy prohibition for user-generated content.”

TikTok’s hate and harassment policies provide the most comprehensive protections for LGBTQ people, according to the report. TikTok also clearly states that public figures are protected under its community guidelines. “However, the platform continues to fall short of sufficiently protecting LGBTQ privacy, safety, and expression in other key areas,” the report states. “TikTok should show greater transparency around the wrongful removal and demonetization of LGBTQ-related content and accounts, and clearly explain the steps it takes to address such actions.”

“As for X,” the report says, “it has become a free-for-all space since Elon Musk purchased it in 2022. It is supposed to target misgendering and deadnaming of transgender people, but we see instances of these all the time, including for public figures such as Congressmember Sarah McBride (D-Delaware), a trans woman.”

X has a policy allowing users to report abusive posts. “The policy does not provide sufficient protections for public figures, and X says it ‘must always hear from the target to determine if a violation has occurred,’ effectively requiring targeted individuals to always self-report policy violations,” GLAAD’s report noted.

GLAAD “key recommendations” to social media companies include strengthening and enforcing (or restoring) “existing policies and mitigations that protect LGBTQ people and others from hate, harassment, and misinformation, while also reducing suppression of legitimate LGBTQ expression;” Improving “moderation by providing mandatory training for all content moderators (including those employed by contractors) focused on LGBTQ safety, privacy, and expression;” and promoting and incentivizing “civil discourse including working with creators and proactively messaging expectations for user behavior, such as respecting platform hate and harassment policies.”

To view the full report, go to https://glaad.org/smsi/social-media-safety-index-2025/.

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Volume 27
Issue 5