Lately, social media giants have been doing a lot of apologizing over LGBT foul-ups.
Each individual incident has sparked outrage and generated national headlines, but taken together they paint a picture of an emerging crisis for these companies: When marginalized groups depend on your platform to build community, relying too heavily on algorithms can have unintended and sometimes hurtful consequences.
The roots of that crisis came into clearer focus last March when LGBT YouTubers noticed that many of their videos had been categorized as “restricted” or “potentially inappropriate” for viewers who opt to turn on a content filter.
The company apologized on Twitter: “Sorry for all the confusion with Restricted Mode.” In a subsequent statement, YouTube explained that “some videos” had been “incorrectly labeled by our automated system.”
Sometimes, the symptoms of this crisis appear to be complex but are simple. In June 2017, Tumblr said it was “deeply sorry” for categorizing some LGBT-related posts as not suitable for work, or NSFW, in its Safe Mode.
In November 2017, Twitter apologized after images posted under the hashtag #bisexual were filtered out of search results.
In a tweet, the company later blamed “a technical issue,” explaining that it tries to “identify sensitive media” by compiling “a list of terms that frequently appear alongside adult content.” In layman’s terms, because “bisexual” sometimes appears in pornographic posts, it was deemed guilty by association and put on the naughty list.
That list “was out of date,” Twitter explained, and “had not been maintained and incorrectly included terms that are primarily used in non-sensitive contexts.”
In June 2018, as Forbes reported, many LGBT YouTube creators noticed that hurtful anti-LGBT advertisements were running on their videos. YouTube told Forbes at the time that they were “looking at ways to improve our policies going forward.”
Then, at the end of Pride Month, YouTube issued a mea culpa over both the anti-LGBT advertisement snafu and for a separate, more long-standing controversy: Many LGBT YouTube creators have experienced demonetization, meaning that they cannot make money off some of their content because it is deemed inappropriate for advertisers.
YouTube admitted on Twitter that it had “let the LGBTQ community down.” Its promise: “We’re sorry and we want to do better.” Once again, “systems” are in part to blame: As the Verge noted, YouTube has previously explained the demonetization issue by saying that its “systems get it wrong” in some instances.
In July 2018, when Yelp stopped its search box from including suggestions that included anti-transgender slurs like “Tranny Bars” and “Shemale Clubs” shortly after the situation was brought to the company's attention, systems were once again the culprit.
The company said that the phenomenon was “a machine-generated error,” saying that those particular searches were rarely used “in the huge volume of search queries” that it receives, but that its “computer-generated models still try to match” even more obscure terms.
Some of these LGBT problems are isolated and easily remedied. In July 2018, for example, Instagram apologized after LGBT outcry over the removal of a photograph of two men locking lips.
The men claimed that they were initially told the post violated “community guidelines.” Instagram then said that it was “removed in error and we are sorry.” The post quickly went back up.
But other times, the problems are widespread and insidious—and only caught long after the fact. In August 2018, for example, the Telegraph reported that some young LGBT Facebook users had been receiving ads for conversion therapy programs. The company told the Advocate that it is “always working to find and remove ads that violate our policies.”
However, it’s not always easy to discern the precise mixture of human wisdom and computer processing that these companies use to regulate the enormous amount of content that gets submitted to their platforms on an hourly basis.
Earlier this month, for example, Facebook apologized after The Washington Post revealed that several LGBT-themed advertisements had been blocked because they were being interpreted as political. As the Post noted, the company would not say “how much of the filtering was driven by algorithms rather than human monitors.” The secret sauce remains secret.
But what has become quietly clear over the past two years—as social media companies deal with a broader deluge of misinformation from bad actors—is that LGBT people aren’t being properly served by the very platforms that, in many instances, have allowed us to connect with each other.
LGBT social media crisis could be split into three subcategories: Problems with search algorithms, problems with advertising, and problems with monetization. Twitter hiding bisexual images or Yelp surfacing “shemale” search suggestions are examples of the first. Conversion therapy ads making it onto Facebook are examples of the second. LGBT YouTubers getting their content demonetized typifies the third.
Such a stance sends a discouraging message to LGBT creators who are trying to use these platform to help others feel less alone.
“We have a place to express ourselves and build a community. Honestly, it’s a beautiful thing—except when we are told that our lives aren’t ad-friendly? What about my life isn’t ad-friendly?”
— Chase Ross, YouTube vlogger and transgender advocate
Chase Ross, a YouTube vlogger and transgender advocate who has drawn attention to the demonetization issue said.
“We have a place to express ourselves and build a community,” he said. “Honestly, it’s a beautiful thing—except when we are told that our lives aren’t ad-friendly? What about my life isn’t ad-friendly?”
Here is the good news, as the controversy lingers on and LGBT community needs to express itself freely with no boundaries, no limits. New buzzing and trending social media called Wawwuly has bridged the gap. You can check it out https://wawwuly.com/register
Wawwuly has LGBT as an option of Gender. LGBT's can now meet themselves, find others close to them, feel safe, post freely without fear of being banned and as it spreads to all countries of the world where LGBT's are being persecuted and frustrated, LGBT love and strength would grow stronger.
Hopefully other social media that have been around over the year would follow this lead and deservedly give LGBT community the voice, respect and freedom it truly deserves.
