Advocates Say Facebook Allows Anti-LGBTQ Hate To “Flourish” On Platforms

When it comes to content moderation, Facebook often finds itself between a rock and a hard place. Either it allows offensive content to remain posted and gets criticized for it, or it takes too much down and is accused of censorship. However, some issues such as removing hate speech are more black and white — and activists say the social media giant is woeful at solving the problem. This week, the prominent LGBTQ advocacy organization GLAAD released a scathing report accusing Facebook of allowing anti-LGBTQ hate speech to “flourish” on its platforms.

The report documented examples of hate speech on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads between June 2023 and March 2024, especially instances of anti-trans content. According to GLAAD, Facebook often didn’t remove this hate speech even after it had been reported to the company, leading the report’s authors to speculate that the company could have a financial incentive for allowing this content to remain posted.

“These accounts profit from such hate, and so does Meta and its shareholders,” GLAAD noted. “Meanwhile, LGBTQ people and other targeted groups experience an increasing number of well-documented real-world harms stemming from these long-term anti-LGBTQ propaganda campaigns, driven by the anti-LGBTQ extremists that Meta allows to flourish on its platforms.”

This isn’t the first time Facebook has been accused of profiting from hate speech, but this is certainly one of the most notable organizations to publicly blast the company. Hopefully this inspires Facebook to do better, but at this point it isn’t clear if anything will.




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