X is the worst social media app for LGBTQ+ people, says new report

jeffw@lemmy.world to Technology@lemmy.world – 512 points –
X is the worst social media app for LGBTQ+ people, says new report - LGBTQ Nation
lgbtqnation.com
114

Actually, in my opinion, Xitter is the worst social media app for society, not just LGBTQ+ people.

"This thing that is terrible for everyone is also terrible for this specific subset of everyone ..."

also rating social media apps is like rating your favourite STDs

Umm, does that include Lemmy?

depends if you think anonymous interactions are as impactful as people you actually know.

oh god, is this actually worse?

I haven't seen that. If you piss off the group mind here you pretty much move on. On real social media you have to worry that someone will just show up at your home.

I always get confused in this thought. So if govt bans twitter(hypothesis) and these people spread to other better places, will they improve or is it better to leave these vile beings among themselves to rot in their twitter or whatever.

A lot of these hateful beliefs are reinforced by these people’s filter bubbles. Forcing them to other places can improve the overall situation.

What if the whole country is an echo chamber of hate. What to do then?

I am okay with the group mind. YouTube kept suggesting Pragur and Epoch times to me.

It finally stopped when I told them in the report video that if I saw another suggestion for Epoch times I will physically go there and scream at them about their YouTube ads until I am dragged out of the building.

There's a theory that part of the problem is that social media aggregates too many different people in one place. Our brains naturally create in groups and out groups, making conflict and toxicity inevitable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuFlMtZmvY0

1 more...
1 more...

Then get the fuck off of it.

Seriously, it's on you the longer you stay on that shithole platform. Despite all of the warnings. All of the things Musk has done. You're still on it. Why? Besides member count, why? Why stick with something that actively hates you and works against your best interests?

"Because uh, muh friends..."

Get those friends off the fucking platform too. If they're staying behind, consider getting new friends.

Mastodon and Blue Sky are better alternatives. Get the fuck off of X. Get some damn self-respect for once.

I feel like the type of person reading your comment on Lemmy isn't the type of person that stays on a platform after it pulls shit they don't agree with.

does an apartment count as a platform?

Blue Sky is like Twitter from 2011. You get yelled at and no matter what you care about you still get political posts.

what the fuck is x? you mean Twitter

It's always ok to deadname twitter.

Seriously. Elon Musk is power tripping to make all of us say his new branding.

And also an idiot for getting rid of the Twitter name and bird, which most companies would kill for to have that sort of household name recognition.

They could have left out, "for LGBTQ+ people" and it would have been just as accurate.

Let me fix that for ya...

X is the worst social media app for LGBTQ+ people

No wait...

X is the worst social media app for LGBTQ+ people

Oh almost forgot...

X Twitter is the worst social media app for LGBTQ+ people

There were go.

Mastodon is pretty great for queer people. Better than lemmy I would say (and obviously better than the mainstream apps) ...

Lemmy is probably the worst social network in terms of discrimination against Windows users.

"Install Windows into walls, not computers" - Leviticus line 5056. Hate the sin, not the sinner.

Really? I would say it's the best for discrimination against Windows users. Better then even old school slashdot.

Lemmy is probably the worst social network in terms of discrimination against Windows users

a) funny b) were you around for USENET ? it was occasionally troublesome in the same way.

Mastodon is pretty great for queer people. Better than lemmy I would say

That's a bit of a weird thing to say if you ask me, as Lemmy and Mastodon is both just the fediverse and they are connected. So surely it just depends who/what you follow?

They are connected but in practice there is definitely a big separation between lemmy and mastodon.. you see mastodon posts on mastodon, lemmy posts on lemmy. yes its possible to view lemmy posts on mastodon but its fucking garbage integration, i have never seen a lemmy posts boosted on mastodon it just doesn't happen.. if I see a mastodon post here its in the form of a screen shot.. the communities are effectively separate

Oof, the article goes on to say all the platforms failed. X just failed a bit more.

This is going to lead to some “well, they’re all about the same.” discourse shenanigans.

What did TikTok do better than the rest? Be annoyingly vertical and short form?

I'm genuinely surprised something owned partly by the Chinese government isn't at the bottom.

On the Chinese only servers they forbsure don't allow it

It drives conflict to the point that neither side of the political torus can speak to each other in a civil manner. "If his forces are united, separate them." - sun tzu

Governments told kids they shouldn't use it. So it naturally became more popular.

I'm surprised those scores are so high honestly

It's fuckin hard being queer on social media

I gotta say, I am pleasantly surprised by Lemmy. I almost never see anything but antifascist allies, and when I do those allies jump that motherfucker's shit.

Lemmy has it's own dens of awful that simp pretty hard for dictators and some pretty shitty regimes

Luckily my instance is defederated from the worst one (IMO)

Lemmy is definitely a lot more accepting of queer people though which I really dig

I have not been active on Zuck platforms or Twitter in over 10 years and it is highly recommended. I haven't been on Reddit since the API changes killed Infinity app. Also recommended. Never touched TikTok or any of the zoomer social media platforms. Extremely recommended.

Amazingly if you just avoid the cesspit of constant engagement, regardless of your life circumstances, you will be happier.

Besides, most things that are genuinely funny or useful on Twitter just get screenshotted and shared via other means anyway.

I was an early beta tester for twitter. Didn’t “get it” then, and I still don’t “get it”.

I haven’t been on any Zuck platforms ever and left Reddit during the API mess, I also don’t use TikTok or LinkedIN and recommend to all leaving corporate social media.

Yeah I use tumblr occasionally but I just don’t like the “follow people” model of social media. Communities make for more interesting content in my experience. I’d rather discuss than merely consume and I don’t really care what someone who has great takes on lesbian discourse has to say about a manga I have no intention on reading unless it’s relevant.

This is Not news for queer* people.

I am in this instance using "Queer" to mean an umbrella for all who are othered by society.

I'm telling you that people with lifelong chronic disability, people who are sex workers, and people who are dispropotionately targeted by the law enforcement or the state, AND disenfranchised casually in everyday society because of their appearance and/or melanin levels...All have networks of contacts they have relied on for over a decade in many cases.

It was easy for me to get off Twitter but for a lot of people I care about, it'd mean severing so many important bonds...and I just thought this sentiment is something that someone reading might apply too, as well

A lot of science/research is just confirming things that seem intuitive

Oh ofc...and i wanted to use this moment to point out tge real-world outcomes that people are experiencing, because it's all too easy to fall into the trap of perceiving it as solely hypoyhetical. (Nearly wrote it off myself as "well, itll be nothing but bots soon"...but im tryna illustrate it just aint that simple)

This sounds like a general issue of: if you're at the margins of society, you're going to have a bad time on social media. Social media is a distillation of the majority opinion on things (i.e. the most extreme versions of majority opinions), and if the majority is intolerant, you'll get the worst of the intolerance.

For example, society's general perception is that sex work is gross, so the most extreme view of that is that sex work is literally corrupting our kids, so you'll get that kind of pushback on social media. A lot of people are uncomfortable with LGBT issues, so the most extreme form of that is attacking LGBT people. Unpopular opinions tend to get attacked, extreme forms of popular opinions tend to stay and get boosted (usually the extreme form is hidden 3-4 levels deep in a discussion thread).

Important to remind people that it's not theoretical when we talk about it. It's real human beings that are being scapegoated. It's real abusers that get a smokescreen.

I 100% agree, which is a huge part of why I don't engage much with social media. Lemmy is literally it for me.

I'm not in a marginalized group, I just refuse to engage with that nonsense. I don't have any solutions for those who are impacted, other than try to build real-world connections with people. Maybe local meetups are a good option here, idk.

Good luck out there! Stay safe!

Thanks. Vest advice I have to any person looking to help, is dont just be a passive ally. Step up as an accomplice. When there's a police protected parade of alt-right demonstrators, show them that they're outnumbered. The SRA does a good job of that, as one example.

The other advice is that whatever space you exist in, be proactive in showing bigots that there's no place at the table at your club.

To anyone reading: Just dont do nothing. You are as powerful as your solidarity.

Worse than Truth Social? Press X to doubt.

That would require that it be a social media platform, as supposed to a money laundering front.

Truth Social is just a way to get money to Trump. Scam/money laundering/bribing. With max a few million/year in revenue I wouldn't compare it to actual social media apps.

It's got a pretty large and active userbase though. I'd call that social media.

the word "cesspit" was used elsewhere in this thread and I think it's a remarkably useful word

Twitter has never been great, just easy to use and widely adopted. It’s gotten worse under Musk and mostly appeals to the worst people left on the platform.

It had its moments. Back in the day I had all the libraries and park feeds in my area on it. Could just plan out my week with my kids in one spot. Yes I tried using a RSS reader but the websites weren't as updated as the Twitter feeds were.

Well that makes sense, after all, Nazi bars do tend to be hostile to members of any minority group and Twitter is the biggest Nazi bar on the internet.

Meanwhile, Tumblr is (or was?) incredibly queer back when I used it. Where's the love?

Reddit should have got a mention, but you know who really wins? Good ol' Lemmy-- LGBTQ (especially T) representing here. Although that's cheating cause we have blahaj, haha (not like the Fediverse will ever get mentioned, lol)

Lgbt nation being surprisingly anti-lgbt by refusing to tell everyone the best social media website for lgbt folk.

Which is? Blue sky? Mastodon? Lobste.rs?

I dunno. I think X may be the least biased platform ever. It's complete shit regardless of who you are.

I mean, yeah, that's true... On the basis that it's the worst social media platform for... Anything at all.

I take exception to this title for being unnecessarily long, it should just read:

X is the worst social media app

In other breaking news: Water continues to be wet. We'll bring you live updates as they become available. Back to you, Tim.

Pretty sure thats how the south african shitstain has it set up

I always get confused in this thought. So if govt bans twitter(hypothesis) and these people spread to other better places, will they improve or is it better to leave these vile beings among themselves to rot in their twitter or whatever.

I accidentally replied to someone else with this but I meant to ask it in the replies.

Hmm. Pretty much for everyone else as well... It has become worse that youtube comments over there.

I am still over there occasionally, because some journalists whose updates I follow are only there. The worst part is that the more right wing trolls I block, the more seem to pop up.

The bird.makeup instance allows you to follow any Twitter account without having to be on the site. I follow multiple Twitter accounts on mastodon with this method. If an account is missing go on the bird.makeup website and search for the profile, it will pop up on the fediverse soon

Lone Skum deadnames his child, you deadname his company. Fuck Skum, and fuck Twatter.

What's there to complain about? I thought X was a chit hole for fascists, nazis, and right-wingers? Isn't reddit good enough?

Oh no, they don't censor every opinion I don't like, don't remove every post that does not align with my worldviews as disinformation, and don't forbid people to say bad words towards me while allowing me to do same towards them, what a horrible place!

I don't use corporate social media anymore, is Facebook actually taking on misinformation now?

Facebook (Meta) actually has a cutting edge team that researches and fights disinformation, they publish some really cool research every few months I recommend reading it. Unfortunately, their efforts amount to pissing on a wildfire that the rest of the company is doing its best to dump gasoline on, since that team is under-resourced compared to the teams tasked with increasing user engagement.