Transgender content creators say they are experiencing a rise in harassment from transphobic groups and users on Facebook, and believe that the platform isn’t doing enough to protect them.
“Facebook is not cracking down on these kinds of posts,” said transgender content creator Jayde Valkyrie. “I know this kind of stuff is a losing battle with other social media platforms becoming more conservative but Facebook seems to be one of the only social media platforms that is pro trans. With that comes a lot of hate.”
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Group names include transphobic slurs and refer to trans people as “disgusting.” Countless posts make fun of the way trans people look and refer to them as “pedophiles” and “groomers.” Valkyrie said anti-trans users will swarm content posted by trans people: An average post for Valkyrie gets about 100 to 200 interactions, but when anti-trans people harass her, a single post, she said, will have anywhere between 15,000 and 16,000 interactions.
“I have DMs from people literally telling me to kill myself and Facebook won’t do anything about it or restrict their accounts,” the 23-year-old said.
A group of trans content creators, including Valkyrie, have repeatedly reported anti-trans groups and posts to the platform. Jessica, a trans influencer and DJ who has also tried to report harassment on Facebook, said that most often, she and her peers get responses from Facebook saying that the posts and users they report don’t violate the site’s terms of service. The creators say they want Facebook’s parent company Meta to do a better job monitoring harmful content, especially as it continues to escalate.
VICE News reviewed anti-trans groups that were flagged by Jessica and a number of other people. Shortly after VICE News asked Meta for comment, three anti-trans groups were disabled.
“We want our products and platforms to be safe for everyone,” said Meta spokesperson David Troya-Alvarez, adding that the company collaborates with LGBTQ+ safety and advocacy organizations to improve safety online.
He did not say why the anti-trans groups hadn’t been taken down earlier, nor whether there’s been an uptick in anti-trans hate on the platform. But trans people say there has been a consistent rise in harassment since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic—and it’s getting worse as anti-trans hate becomes increasingly mainstream.
“I didn’t see a rise in hate until this year,” Jessica said. “These groups were created probably two years ago on Facebook… But the rise in all this hate that is going on has probably been more recent, within the last year.”
As a content creator, Jessica, who does cosplay modeling, is able to monetize her posts. She’s worried that her followers are also going to be harrassed—which could affect her online community as well as her earnings.
“Facebook isn’t living up to its standards and keeping their members safe. It’s awful,” Jessica said. “I’m kind of scared for my followers and friends because it’s not fair they have to endure an immense amount of hate for something they can’t change. I hate that they’re being subjected to so much hate.”
As for content creators themselves, “we’re doing our jobs but we’re also getting harassed for doing our jobs,” Jessica said.
Women and people of color have previously called out Facebook for failing to respond to harassment, and Facebook isn’t the only social media platform where trans people are reporting a surge of it. Twitter, a site that once served as a community hub, has become a vector for hate under the leadership of Twitter owner Elon Musk, who basically gutted the site and laid off thousands of employees, including staff on the teams that handle global content moderation and monitor hate speech and harassment. (Musk has also tweeted anti-trans sentiments himself.)
All this is happening as GOP politicians and rightwing media have stoked suspicion, fear, and hatred against LGBTQ people. This year alone, GOP politicians have introduced more than 500 anti-trans bills, including gender-affirming care bans, drag show bans, and bathrooms bills that prohibit trans people from using washrooms that correspond to their gender. The bills are based on myth, not science, but that hasn’t stopped their supporters from inciting a moral panic against trans people. This has had real life consequences on trans people, and some experts have equated this push to genocide.
“It’s definitely an uncomfortable awakening to see it in real time in front of me,” Valkyrie said of the hate visible on Facebook. “They make fun of transness, appearances, and jump to “pedophilia” and other name-calling. Those allegations can ruin lives.”
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