GLAAD's Sixth Annual Social Media Safety Index Finds Historic Low Scores as Meta, X, and YouTube Roll Back LGBTQ+ Protections
GLAAD's 2026 index scores six major platforms on LGBTQ+ safety: TikTok leads at 56, while X scores 29 and YouTube drops 11 points after removing gender identity from hate speech protections.
Editor's Note ·
- Correction:
- The article states that LGBTQ+ hashtags being blocked in Meta's search tools for teen accounts is reported by QNews. The QNews article does not contain this claim. The finding originates from The Advocate's coverage of the same report (advocate.com). The fact itself is correct and verified; only the inline citation is misattributed.
Overview
GLAAD released its sixth annual Social Media Safety Index on May 15, 2026, and the results mark a new low point for platform accountability: with the sole exception of TikTok, every major social media network received a lower score than the year before. The nonprofit media advocacy organization evaluated six platforms — TikTok, YouTube, X, and Meta’s Facebook, Instagram, and Threads — across 14 LGBTQ-specific indicators covering online safety, privacy, and expression. None of the six passed.
“Both Meta and YouTube have implemented and sustained calculated policy changes this past year that knowingly make LGBTQ people less safe,” GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said in a statement reported by The Advocate.
Platform Scores
Out of a possible 100 points, TikTok remained the top-ranked platform for the second consecutive year, holding steady at 56. The remaining five platforms all declined:
- Instagram: 41 (down 4 from 45 in 2025)
- Facebook: 40 (down 5 from 45 in 2025)
- Threads: 39 (down 1 from 40 in 2025)
- YouTube: 30 (down 11 from 41 in 2025)
- X: 29 (down 1 from 30 in 2025)
YouTube recorded the steepest decline of any platform, losing 11 points, according to The Advocate and Gayety. X ranked last for the second year running.
YouTube’s Policy Rollback
The primary driver behind YouTube’s 11-point fall was the removal of gender identity from the list of protected characteristics in its hate speech policy. The change leaves transgender, nonbinary, and gender non-conforming users more exposed to targeted harassment, the index found.
“Fundamentally, this signals to anyone on the platform that it’s OK to express hate against trans people,” said Jenni Olson, senior director of GLAAD’s social media safety program, as reported by NBC Palm Springs.
Meta’s Accumulated Changes
Meta’s three platforms — Facebook, Instagram, and Threads — all declined, driven by a series of policy modifications that took effect in early 2025. According to The Advocate, the changes include:
- Removing protections for transgender and nonbinary users from its hateful conduct policies
- Permitting users to characterize LGBTQ+ people as “mentally ill” or “abnormal”
- Ending the U.S. third-party fact-checking program
- Deleting trans and nonbinary themes from Messenger
- Dismantling diversity, equity, and inclusion programs
- Continuing to use the term “transgenderism” in Community Standards, which GLAAD describes as an anti-trans framing, despite a recommendation from Meta’s own Oversight Board to change it
Meta had previously stated it would “consider ways to update the terminology” and later said it was “assessing feasibility,” according to Attitude. The 2026 index found the term still present.
The report also found that LGBTQ+ hashtags are blocked in Meta’s search tools for teen accounts, according to QNews.
A survey conducted as part of the “Make Meta Safe” campaign found that 92% of respondents were concerned that harmful content had increased following Meta’s policy rollbacks, and 77% said they felt less safe expressing themselves on Meta platforms, The Advocate reported.
Moderation Systems and AI
Beyond explicit policy changes, the index raised concerns about automated moderation systems. GLAAD found that AI-driven moderation simultaneously suppresses legitimate LGBTQ+ content — through removals, demonetization, and shadowbanning — while failing to remove actual harassment, according to QNews and Gayety. The report notes that declining platform transparency makes it harder for researchers and users to assess how such systems operate.
Real-World Context
GLAAD’s ALERT Desk documented more than 1,000 anti-LGBTQ+ incidents in 2025, and anti-LGBTQ+ bias accounted for more than 20% of reported hate crimes in 2024 — the third consecutive year at that level — according to The Advocate and Gayety.
Ellis framed the platform failures in direct relation to physical-world outcomes, emphasizing that online harassment carries “real-world consequences” that connect digital abuse to physical violence and anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, Mamba Online reported.
“Leading social media companies today do not meet basic best practices in content moderation, transparency, data privacy, and workforce diversity,” Ellis said, as reported by Mamba Online. “They are systemic failures that tech leaders have the tools to fix, yet they choose to profit from them instead.”
Platform Responses
X, Meta, and YouTube did not respond to requests for comment ahead of the report’s release, according to NBC Palm Springs.
What We Don’t Know
The index does not disclose weightings for individual indicators, making it difficult to compare cross-platform scores directly. It is not clear whether any of the three lowest-ranked platforms have begun implementing the report’s recommendations since its May 15 release. TikTok’s unchanged score, while the highest among evaluated platforms, still leaves it well below any conventional definition of a passing grade.