The LGBTQ media advocacy organization GLAAD gave failing grades to several major social media platforms for how well they protect the safety, privacy and expression of the LGBTQ community online.
As part of the fourth annual Social Media Safety Index, GLAAD examined hate, disinformation, predominant anti-LGBTQ tropes, best policy practices, the suppression of LGBTQ content, artificial intelligence and data protection, regulation and the connections between “online hate and offline harm.”
The organization gave five of the six leading social media platforms a failing grade. Social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter; YouTube; Meta’s Facebook; Instagram; and Threads all received a failing F grade on the index’s score card for the third consecutive year.
TikTok, an app that could eventually be banned in the United States, was the only major social platform to not receive an F, earning a D+ rating.
TikTok’s score improved from last year, GLAAD said, because the company made several improvements to its “Anti-Discrimination Ad Policy,” which means advertisers can’t wrongfully target or exclude users from seeing content, among other improvements.
The organization said it aims to analyze social media platforms and index them so advocates can call on the leaders of social media companies who fail to make safe products for the LGBTQ community.
“When it comes to anti-LGBTQ hate and disinformation, the industry is dangerously lacking on enforcement of current policies,” GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said in a statement. “There is a direct relationship between online harms and the hundreds of anti-LGBTQ legislative attacks, rising rates of real-world anti-LGBTQ violence and threats of violence, that social media platforms are responsible for and should act with urgency to address.”
Threads received its first F rating since it was launched in the summer of 2023. Meta’s other platforms, Facebook and Instagram, were the only other platforms to receive worse ratings than the year prior. Facebook dropped 3 points and Instagram dropped 5 points from 2023.
TikTok increased 10 points over the last year. YouTube increased 4 points, and X increased 8 points.