Key findings in the 2026 SMSI include:

• The early 2025 hate speech policy rollbacks from Meta and YouTube continue to present grave threats to safety and are harmful to LGBTQ people on these platforms.
• Anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and disinformation online can translate to offline harms.
• Platforms are largely failing to mitigate harmful anti-LGBTQ hate and disinformation that violates their own policies.
• Platforms disproportionately suppress LGBTQ content, via removal, demonetization, unwarranted age-gating, and forms of shadowbanning.
• Social media companies continue to withhold meaningful transparency about content moderation, algorithms, use of AI, and data privacy practices. The rollback of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and other commitments to upholding civil rights across the tech industry has further eroded key safeguards for LGBTQ safety online.

Recommendations:

• Strengthen and enforce (or restore) existing policies and mitigations that protect LGBTQ people and others from hate, harassment, and misinformation; while also reducing suppression of legitimate LGBTQ expression.
• Improve moderation by providing ongoing mandatory training for all content moderators (including those employed by contractors) focused on LGBTQ safety, privacy, and expression; and moderate across all languages, cultural contexts, and regions. AI systems should be used to flag for human review, not for automated removals.
• Work with independent researchers to provide meaningful transparency about content moderation, community guidelines, development and use of AI and algorithms, and enforcement reports.
• Respect data privacy. Platforms should minimize the data they collect, infer, and retain, end targeted surveillance advertising and give users more control over how their data is used for the development of algorithmic recommendation systems.
• Promote and incentivize civil discourse including working with creators and proactively messaging expectations for user behavior, such as respecting platform hate and harassment policies.
• Demonstrate a commitment to DEI best practices in reporting voluntarily self-disclosed LGBTQ workforce diversity data annually.