Twitter worst among major social media platforms when it comes to LGBTQ safety, GLAAD says

tech.hindustantimes.com:

All major social media platforms do poorly at protecting LGBTQ users from hate speech and harassment — especially those who are transgender, non-binary or gender non-conforming, the advocacy group GLAAD said on Thursday. But Twitter is the worst.

In its annual Social Media Safety Index, GLAAD gave Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Twitter low or failing scores, saying the platforms don't do enough to keep their users safe. That said, most improved from a year ago.

Twitter, which was acquired by Tesla CEO Elon Musk last October, was the only exception. GLAAD's scorecard called it “the most dangerous platform for LGBTQ people" and the only one that saw its scores decline from last year.

Twitter's communications staff was eradicated after Musk took over the company and for months inquiries to the press office have been answered only an automated reply of a poop emoji, as was the case when The Associated Press reached out to the company for comment.

LGBTQ advocates have long warned that online hate and harassment can lead to violence offline. But even when it does not, online abuse can take a toll on a person's mental health.

“There isn't a week that goes by that we don't have a doxxing situation for somebody in our community that we have to come in and help them stop it and stop the hate, stop the vitriol and stop the attacks,” said GLAAD CEO and President Sarah Kate Ellis referring to the malicious practice that involves gathering private or identifying information and releasing it online without the person's permission, usually in an attempt to harass, threaten, shame or exact revenge. “It's really been amped up to a level that we've never seen before."

On Twitter, attacks on LGBTQ users have increased substantially