Source: Amnesty International –
The report contains sensitive content that may be upsetting for some readers.
X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, has contributed to the spread of targeted hate against LGBTI people in Poland, Amnesty International said in a new report analyzing the platform’s business model for the first time.
The report, ‘A Thousand Cuts’: Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence Against Poland’s LGBTI Community on X, details how X’s business model and content moderation failings enabled the spread of technology facilitated gender-based violence (TfGBV).
“Through inadequate content moderation practices and a lack of human rights due diligence, X has contributed to human abuses against members of Poland’s LGBTI community,” said Alia Al Ghussain, Amnesty International Researcher and Advisor on technology and human rights.
These failures, coupled with the unjustifiable removal of safeguards against harmful speech, means X has now become a breeding ground of content constituting TfGBV.
This has affected LGBTI people’s rights to freedom of expression, freedom of association, non-discrimination and their ability to feel safe in society.
Poland’s LGBTI community has experienced a range of TfGBV on X, including threats of violence, online harassment, doxing (the sharing of a person’s private information online, with malicious intent) and targeted online hate.
This has forced some to stop using the platform due to the fear of being exposed or ostracized.