Social media has long been failing LGBTQ+ people. But it's getting worse. - LGBTQ Nation

"Looking at these dismal scores, it may seem that there is no new 'news' in this year's report. The fact that the SMSI's central findings tell the same story of platform failure year after year is, unfortunately, itself newsworthy."

"After TikTok, the remaining five social media platforms all fell from last year's standings. Threads dropped a single point to 39, Instagram dropped 4 points to 41, and Facebook dropped 5 points to 40. All three platforms are owned by Meta. YouTube saw the biggest drop, losing 11 points to land at 30. While Twitter/X only lost 1 point, it was already the lowest-ranked of the studied platforms, a position it held on to with a score of just 29 this year."

"GLAAD found that in 2025, both YouTube and the Meta platforms rolled back or altered LGBTQ+ protections that they already had in place. Early in the year, Meta released new regulations under their "Hateful Conduct" policy, which not only removed protections for LGBTQ+ people but also specifically carved out permission for users to refer to queer users as "mentally ill." They also introduced "transgenderism" to their policy language, a word that has been used by the political right to cast trans identities as an ideology rather than innate to existence."

"Similarly, YouTube removed "gender identity" from the protected characteristics in its hate speech policy and removed previous exceptions that allowed LGBTQ+ people to use "LGBTQ-related slurs in a self-expressive manner.""

GLAAD’s 2026 Social Media Safety Index reports that safety for LGBTQ+ people has worsened across major social media platforms. TikTok remains the only platform that holds its score at 56 out of 100. Threads scores 39, Instagram scores 41, and Facebook scores 40, all down from the prior year and all owned by Meta. YouTube drops 11 points to 30. Twitter/X remains the lowest at 29. GLAAD identifies 2025 changes that rolled back or altered LGBTQ+ protections. Meta’s “Hateful Conduct” policy removed protections for LGBTQ+ people and allowed users to describe queer users as “mentally ill,” while adding “transgenderism” to policy language. YouTube removed “gender identity” from protected characteristics and removed exceptions that previously allowed LGBTQ+ people to use LGBTQ-related slurs in self-expressive ways.

Read at LGBTQ Nation