According to a recent GLAAD study, Meta is not upholding its own policies on hate speech against transgender people on its site. According to the LGBTQ advocacy group, “extreme anti-trans hate content is still widely available on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.”
Several instances of hate speech from Meta’s apps are included in the study; according to GLAAD, these reports were sent to the firm between June 2023 and March 2024. Nevertheless, despite the posts’ apparent infractions of the business’s regulations, GLAAD claims that “Meta either replied that posts were not violative or simply did not take action on them.”
The reported content included posts with anti-trans slurs, violent and dehumanizing language and promotions for conversion therapy, all of which are barred under Meta’s rules. GLAAD also notes that some of the posts it reported came from influential accounts with large audiences on Facebook and Instagram. GLAAD also shared two examples of posts from Threads, Meta’s newest app where the company has tried to tamp down “political” content and other “potentially sensitive” topics.
“The company’s ongoing failure to enforce their own policies against anti-LGBTQ, and especially anti-trans hate, is simply unacceptable,” GLAAD’s CEO and President Sarah Kate Ellis said in a statement.
Meta didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. But GLAAD’s report isn’t the first time the company has faced criticism for its handling of content targeting the LGBTQ community. Last year the Oversight Board urged Meta to “improve the accuracy of its enforcement on hate speech towards the LGBTQIA+ community.”
