Editorial: Social media companies must improve

Pride Month is here, and with it, the multitude of events, gatherings, and celebrations for the LGBTQ community. Many will find out about these festivities on social media feeds.

Yet, as most of us also know, 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.

Those are just some of the findings of GLAAD’s 2025 Social Media Safety Index, which was released last month. None of the companies in GLAAD’s report received a great score, though TikTok came out on top at 56 points out of 100. The rest were dismal: Facebook and Instagram were each at 45; YouTube, 41; Threads, 40; and X, 30. (GLAAD used a different methodology this year for the scorecard, which was done in partnership with Ranking Digital Rights. The platform scorecard focuses on the existence of policies and does not measure the enforcement of those policies.) The scorecard measures data privacy, moderation transparency, training of content moderators, and workforce diversity, along with several other indicators, according to GLAAD. But the bottom line is that the social media companies are all failing to meet basic standards across most safety metrics on the scorecard.

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. 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. Conversion therapy has been debunked and condemned by leading medical associations, the United Nations, and other organizations. Numerous states, including California, ban its use on minors.

On a more positive note, 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.”

Of course, TikTok has close ties to the Chinese government, which worries some privacy experts. Just before President Donald Trump took office in January, a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court upheld a federal ban on TikTok that Trump, so far, has ignored.

As for X, 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. “The policy also 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.

In spite of all of these shortcomings, however, social media sites remain widely used, and have helped many LGBTQ people find supportive friends and organizations. Bluesky, which amassed millions of followers in the aftermath of last year’s presidential election, wasn’t evaluated by GLAAD this time, though Olson hopes it is next year. So far, she said that she’s been impressed by the site.

What people can do
LGBTQ artists and performers constantly promote their events on social media, as do LGBTQ-owned bars, nightclubs, nonprofits, and other businesses. Content creators also post on social media, such as this newspaper. That doesn’t appear to be changing anytime soon, and Olson was asked what people can do to maintain social media safety to a certain degree.

GLAAD has issued a quick guide for a safer online experience. Olson pointed out that users can review and adjust their privacy settings, which is included in the guide. Other advice includes discovering what personal information is available online and learning how to recover your social accounts if hacked. Reporting hate speech is also an option, though how quickly or seriously social media platforms will respond to requests can be an issue. There’s also a Slate article that GLAAD recommends, “What to do if You’re the Target of Online Harassment,” though it was published in 2020, before Twitter became X.

Olson pointed out that LGBTQ people who work for Meta, YouTube, X, and TikTok, particularly in the Bay Area, can also help. She said the GLAAD report urges LGBTQ employees at social media sites “to do whatever they can to make these platforms safe.”

Let’s not forget that while the sites are free to use, people give up some degree of their privacy when they join these platforms. These are for-profit companies that, for the most part, answer to shareholders (X and TikTok are privately held.) They don’t necessarily have the best interests of LGBTQs in mind. But that doesn’t mean that online safety should take a backseat.

“We all deserve to feel safe on social media, and in the world,” Olson said.

So, check your feeds but do so knowing that the social media landscape has changed, and not for the better.