LLYC’s Deep Digital team analyzed more than 169 million social media posts from the 12 countries where the company is present
Hateful messages against the LGBTQIA+ collective on social media are gaining ground among those promoting support for this group. The volume of negative messages has increased by almost 9.4% in the last four years. While the positive ones fell to 41.25%.
This is the main conclusion of the report “LGBTQIA+ hate speech and pride in the digital conversation”, prepared by LLYC within the scope of Pride 2023. Using Big Data and Artificial Intelligence techniques, the consultancy’s Deep Digital team analyzed more than 169 million publications in the social networks to understand how the dialogue between the detractors and promoters communities has evolved in the 12 countries where the company is present, 10 in America (United States, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Panama and Dominican Republic ) and two in Europe (Spain and Portugal).
The main promotional narratives detected in the report have to do with the support of the President of the United States, Joe Biden, for the LGBTQIA+ collective, with support for the trans community, the celebration of Pride around the world, the promotion of respect for decisions about gender identity and demands to fly the rainbow flag at key institutions. On the contrary, the most successful detractor narratives are those that refer to aversion or hatred against this community, denunciations about the so-called gender ideology, criticism of the group’s supposed privileges and adoption by LGBTQIA+ couples.
When analyzing by country, most promotional messages come from the United States (69.08%). Next are Spain (12.62%) and Mexico (5.70%). As for the detractors, Brazil leads in volume (37.67%) while the countries with the most conversations against the group are Ecuador (61.33%), Chile (50.76%), Peru (50.13%) and Republic Dominican (38.74%). ).
Brazil
According to the study, in Brazil there was a significant decrease of 46.24% in the promoting community, while the opposing community registered an increase of 13.16%. In addition, at the end of 2022, an increase in the number of members of the opposing community was observed. Among the main positive narratives are the celebration of Pride month, the recognition of the gay pride parade as an important “cause” event for awareness, the promotion of respect for LGBTQIA+ rights and complaints about violence in prisons.
On the other hand, the main opposing narratives involve rejection of the adoption of children by LGBTQIA+ couples, the use of the term “gender ideology” as an attack on the collective, and criticism of supposed “privileges” of the LGBTQIA+ community.
For David Gonzlez Natal, partner at LLYC and leader of the report, both the growth of hate speech and the metaphorical return to the digital closet by the conversation that celebrates the rights of the collective are worrying. “All this means that, on the one hand, we must think more than ever about measures that protect the collective from these attacks to which they are subjected on social networks, but also about how to project positive impact stories that promote positive and supportive conversations. Companies and brands have a clear role in all of this far beyond Pride”, he points out.
‘Rainbot’ campaign
To help improve LGBTQIA+ pride speech against hate speech and raise society’s awareness of how dangerous it is for this group to amplify these derogatory messages, LLYC launched the ‘Rainbot’ campaign, the first bot that transforms hateful tweets against the collective LGBTQIA+ in poems that celebrate diversity.
Specifically, it finds these hateful messages on Twitter and, using generative Artificial Intelligence, detects the offending words and transforms them into short poems in support of the collective that are then shared so that they can be expanded. The bot was developed by the consultancy’s creative and Deep Digital teams.
(Image credits: Cecilie Johnsen/Unsplash)
