Help Make Social Media Safer

In some countries, government agents use social media to harass, trick, and entrap innocent people. This online targeting leads to dire real-world consequences, like wrongful imprisonment and torture.

You might think social media companies would want to prevent this from happening at all costs, but unfortunately, that isn’t always the case.

Human Rights Watch has documented how in five countries – Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Tunisia – security forces use social media platforms to digitally target LGBT people, who then suffer grim results. We looked at state agents’ use of two platforms in particular: Facebook and Instagram, both owned by Meta, the largest social media company in the world.

We’ve reported on this before: LGBT people being harassed, doxxed, outed, and abused on Facebook and Instagram. In all these cases, Meta either did not respond to people’s complaints or said the content did not violate its policies, and the content remained online.

Meta’s policies and standards prohibit many forms of online abuse, but the company frequently falls short in consistently applying these rules on its platforms. Meta can – and should – do better. They can – and should – make their social media platforms safe for LGBT users in the Middle East and everywhere else.

To draw attention to this problem and hopefully move Meta in a more positive direction, we have joined with partner organizations to launch a new campaign: #SecureOurSocials.

I want to be clear in all this: the ultimate root of the problem here is abusive governments. Governments hold the primary duty for protecting human rights everywhere. Governments in the Middle East should be respecting and protecting the rights of LGBT people instead of criminalizing their expression and targeting them online.

But social media companies have a responsibility to respect human rights, too, including the rights to nondiscrimination, privacy, and freedom of expression. All companies have a duty to identify and address the human rights impacts arising from their products and services.

Social media everywhere should be a tool for people to communicate and connect. It should never be a gateway to torture by the police.

If you agree, I encourage you to join the #SecureOurSocials campaign, and help us bring attention to this important issue: please act now.