Major social media platforms fail to protect LGBTQ users, GLAAD says

By BARBARA ORTUTAY, Associated Press Technology Writer

SAN FRANCISCO — Major social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram and X have failed to protect LGBTQ+ users from hate and harassment, in part, because they intentionally rolled back previous safety practices, the advocacy group GLAAD said Tuesday in its annual Social Media Safety Index.

The report said that recent “unprecedented hate speech policy rollbacks” from Instagram and Facebook parent Meta Platforms and Google’s YouTube are “actively undermining the safety of LGBTQ people” both online and offline. Meta’s rollback now allows users to call LGBTQ people “mentally ill,” among other policy changes.

The scorecard assigns numeric ratings to each platform with regard to LGBTQ safety, privacy, and expression. Elon Musk’s X rec