Disturbing anti-trans hate is running rampant on Meta, according to a new report from LGBTQ+ organization GLAAD.
The report details a huge number of anti-trans sentiments on popular platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Threads — both from trolls and more high-profile hate accounts, including right-wing internet personalities and infamous social media pages like Libs Of TikTok.
Per the Washington Post, anti-trans content on the platform spanned numerous categories, from the use of anti-trans slurs to “dehumanizing” stereotypes such as classifying trans and non-binary people as “satanic,” “sexual predators,” “perverts” and “terrorists.”
“Characterized by fear-mongering, lies, conspiracy theories, dehumanizing tropes, and violent rhetoric, these posts — many by high-follower accounts — aim to boost engagement, generate revenue, and seed hateful narratives about trans, nonbinary, and gender non-conforming people,” GLAAD said in a blog post.
“These accounts profit from such hate, and so does Meta and its shareholders. 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.”
Despite policies against hate speech, the GLAAD report highlights Meta’s failure to properly moderate this content through its own reporting channels. The report also emphasizes the need for Meta to strengthen both its content moderation efforts and the enforcement of its own community standards.
