Online LGBTQ+ Hate Surges Over 400% Following Florida’s "Don’t Say Gay" Bill
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Online LGBTQ+ hate surged by over 400% across social media platforms, the month after Florida passed the Parental Rights in Education bill, dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, according to a new report.
The research released by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and the Center for Countering Digital Hate, revealed that the average number of tweets per day using slurs such as “groomer” and “pedophile” in relation to LGBTQ+ people surged by 406% in the month after the Florida bill was passed (March 2022), resulting in a sharp spike in online homophobia and transphobia that social media platforms not only failed to crack down on, but also profited from.
The report, Digital Hate: Social Media’s Role in Amplifying Dangerous Lies About LGBTQ+ People, also revealed that the anti-LGBTQ+ content was largely driven by a small group of extremist politicians and their allies who together are driving a coordinated and concerted campaign to attack LGBTQ+ kids in an effort to rile up extreme members of their base ahead of the midterm elections.
According to the findings, in a matter of days, just 10 people drove 66% of impressions for the 500 most viewed hateful “grooming” tweets. They include politicians like Governor Ron DeSantis’s press secretary Christina Pushaw, extremist members of Congress like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert, as well as pro-Trump activists like “Libs of TikTok” founder Chaya Raicheck. Posts from these 10 people alone reached more than 48 million views, and the top 500 most influential “grooming” tweets all together were seen 72 million times.
The “visibility these posts garnered is a direct result of Twitter’s failure to enforce its own policies banning anti-LGBTQ+ slurs,” noted the report. Twitter failed to act on 99% of the 100 hateful tweets reported to them anonymously by CCDH researchers, even after it had stated ‘grooming’ slurs were against its policies on hate speech. On Facebook and Instagram, 59 paid ads promoted the same narrative. Despite similar policies prohibiting anti-LGBTQ+ hate content on both social media platforms, only one ad was removed.
“As social media platforms fail to enforce their own standards – enabling a wave of online anti-LGBTQ+ hate to grow without restraint – extremists are wielding dangerous influence, seeking to radicalize Americans, incite hate against LGBTQ+ people, and mobilize the extremists within their base ahead of the midterm elections,” stated HRC Interim President Joni Madison. “But the rise of this online vitriol doesn’t just have political implications – there are deadly, real world consequences as violent rhetoric leads to stigma, radicalization, and ultimately violence. Nearly one in five of any type of hate crime is now motivated by anti-LGBTQ+ bias, and the last two years have been the deadliest for transgender people, particularly Black transgender women. HRC, along with our partners at the Center for Countering Digital Hate, urgently calls on social media companies to act swiftly and transparently to stop the spread of extremist and hateful misinformation, including the grooming narrative.”
"We’re in the middle of a growing wave of hate and demonization targeting LGBTQ+ people – often distributed digitally by opportunistic politicians and so-called ‘influencers’ for personal gain,” added Imran Ahmed, CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate. “Online hate and lies reflect and reinforce offline violence and hate. The normalization of anti-LGBTQ+ narratives in digital spaces puts LGBTQ+ people in danger. Facebook and Twitter claim in their rules to prohibit this kind of targeted hate and harassment but they simply don’t enforce those rules on bad actors – rules which are designed to protect others’ rights. The clear message from social media giants is that they are willing to turn a blind eye. LGTBQ+ rights have been transformed after decades of hard-won progress, but progress is fragile unless you continue to defend it.”
There are real life consequences to anti-LGBTQ+ hate being spread online, highlighted HRC. Nearly one in five of any type of hate crime is now motivated by anti-LGBTQ+ bias. The full report and dataset can be found on HRC’s website here.
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