* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Misinformation and hate are being spread about LGBT+ people on social media
Andrew Legon is a senior campaigner at Avaaz
Pride month ended this year with Europe divided.
A rainbow curtain now cuts across the European Union, with Hungary’s anti-LGBT+ law just the latest sign of an increasingly sharp frontier in the fight for LGBT+ rights. All eyes are now on Brussels and the fightback by the European Commission. But they should also be focused on Silicon Valley – for the fight for LGBT+ rights is being fought and lost on social media.
Hungary’s new law, which bans depictions of homosexuality in school educational materials or TV shows for under-18s, is undoubtedly a political move. Look no further than next year’s election to see the reason why prime minister Viktor Orbán’s authoritarian government has suddenly intensified its scapegoating of LGBT+ people. Copycat legislation is likely in Poland, which is travelling a similar path towards illiberalism.
That path is paved with anti-LGBT+ misinformation. Just as the extremists of the 1930s came to power, and wielded it, on the back of new communication tools such as radio, so too are their modern-day counterparts. Social media is this century’s far-right enabler.
LGBT+ misinformation is nothing new. But social media has it pumped full of steroids. Algorithms now push out misinformation about our communities to millions....
Read Full Story: https://news.trust.org/item/20210831084636-fgwxl/
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