Meta, the company that owns Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, has not enforced its own rules against hateful posts targeting transgender people, including those made by influential political figures and media organizations, according to a new report from the LGBTQ+ media advocacy group GLAAD. a recently published report from the LGBTQ+ media advocacy group GLAAD.
GLAAD documented numerous posts that used derogatory language to refer to transgender individuals and depicted them as 'mentally ill,' 'satanic,' 'sexual predators,' 'pedophiles,' 'terrorists,' and 'perverts' The Washington Post reported. One image showed a group of people attacking a transgender person; another showed a masked person holding a gun on top of a demon in the colors of the transgender flag.
Other posts accused transgender individuals of seeking to 'sexualize, sterilize, and harm children,' misgendered transgender celebrities, ridiculed transgender individuals who died by suicide, suggested violence against medical professionals offering gender-affirming care, promoted conversion therapy, and called for the 'eradication' of transgender people.
The posts were made by accounts linked to the right-wing publication The Daily Wire, Gays Against Groomers, Chaya Raichik’s Libs of TikTok, The Babylon Bee, and One Million Moms.
The posts violate Meta’s stated policies against hate speech targeting the LGBTQ+ community and 'dehumanizing speech' that promotes discrimination or harassment against these groups, and expresses a belief that a protected group should not exist.
In a June 2023 public letter organized by GLAAD and the Human Rights Campaign, over 250 LGBTQ+ celebrities, public figures, and allies urged Meta and other social media companies to take stronger actions against the significant amount of anti-transgender hate on their platforms. The letter was signed by prominent LGBTQ+ and allied individuals such as Elliot Page, Laverne Cox, Jamie Lee Curtis, Janelle Monáe, Gabrielle Union, Judd Apatow, Ariana Grande, and Jonathan Van Ness.
However, the recent report indicates that Meta has not taken sufficient measures to combat this trend. In September 2023, Facebook’s Oversight Board stated, “The main issue here is not with the policies, but with their enforcement. Despite multiple alerts about … harmful content, Meta’s consistent failure to take appropriate action leads the Board to conclude that the company is not living up to the standards it has set for LGBTQIA+ safety.”
In its statement regarding the recent report, GLAAD remarked, “Meta itself acknowledges in its public declarations and in its own policies that hate speech ‘creates an atmosphere of intimidation and exclusion, and in some cases may encourage offline violence.’ Meta’s admission of its own responsibility makes its negligence and reluctance to shield people from such hate… even more alarming.”
In addition, some LGBTQ+ content creators on Meta have alleged that the company limits the reach of their posts due to Meta's new restrictions on political content, including content related to politicians and LGBTQ+ issues.
“As the company worth a trillion dollars revenues soar, Meta keeps on lay off important trust and safety teams and relies more on ineffective AI systems for content moderation,” GLAAD stated in its report. “Meta’s failure to enforce rules has led to repeated rebukes and concern from the Oversight Board (the independent group that makes influential decisions on content moderation on Meta’s platforms). As Axios and The Verge have shown, some users discover that their reports on harmful content are not reviewed at all.”
