ICYMI: HRC Calls Out Meta for Accepting Millions in Ad Revenue for Transphobic Ads

According to HRC Findings, Meta Accepted Over $4 Million for Ads that Violate its Own "Community Standards"

Washington, D.C. - As violent attacks against the transgender community continue to rise across the country, Meta has made over $4 million off of advertisements for What Makes a Woman?, Matt Walsh's anti-trans propaganda film, according to new reporting from the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) in Xtra. Many of these ads explicitly violate Facebook's community guidelines-out of the 342 ads surveyed by HRC, 29 actively include misinformation about gender-affirming care.

Online hate towards the LGBTQ+ community has been trending upwards for years, and a report produced by HRC and the Center for Countering Digital Hate found that after Florida passed their "Don't Say Gay or Trans" bill, hateful social posts perpetuating the dangerous "grooming slur" increased by 406%.

READ MORE ABOUT META'S CHOICE TO ACCEPT MILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN ANTI-TRANS AD DOLLARS IN XTRA HERE

Walsh is no stranger to these kinds of attacks. In fact, he was among those leading a campaign of lies that led to bomb threats against hospitals providing gender-affirming care services to transgender youth. Walsh has a well-known reputation for spreading these dangerous fabrications, yet Meta-and other social platforms-continue to allow him carte blanche.

KEY EXCERPTS FROM THE XTRA STORY:

"According to HRC researchers, Meta netted between $4 and $5 million dollars in ad revenue from advertisements placed on Walsh's Facebook page for his 2022 documentary, What Is a Woman?, which seeks to discredit the movement for trans equality…The 342 ads surveyed by HRC also include videos broadcast by The Daily Wire, a conservative news website co-founded by Ben Shapiro, which produced and released the documentary."

"When researchers combed through the content of the ads, they found that many actively violated Meta's community standards. The ads contradicted the platform's hate speech policy by including content that demeaned and dehumanized trans people and relied on damaging stereotypes like the trans predator myth, according to HRC. Several of the ads reportedly use images of trans youth without their permission, directly violating Meta's terms of service.

While Meta's ad policies explicitly prohibit encouraging discrimination and misinformation, Walsh's ads contain both-including 29 that actively promote misinformation about gender-affirming medical care."

"Like many other marginalized groups, social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter are vital outlets for the LGBTQ2S+ community," Laurel Powell, deputy director of communications for the HRC's Foundation programs, tells Xtra via email. "As publicly traded corporations, it's good business for these companies to ensure the people on their platforms don't face threats, harassment or stigma paid for by extremists."

"HRC is concerned the ads will lead to real-world threats and violence against trans people, also a direct violation of the platform's safety policy. In Walsh's case, this is not without precedent: earlier this year, he helped spearhead harassment campaigns against hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to trans youth, which led to multiple instances of bomb threats and death threats."

"As a whole, social media companies lack real mechanisms for accountability, leading to a lack of trust on the part of marginalized groups," [Powell] says.

"No system is perfect, and that's certainly true for social media companies," Powell says. "But when we're talking about millions upon millions of dollars being spent-and who knows where that money comes from-to promote a propaganda film filled with outright lies and mistruths about transgender people, which seems to have no goal but to further stigmatize transgender people, there must be a some mechanism by which Meta and the Facebook platform won't let themselves be used to cause harm."

When reporting on issues pertaining to transgender and non-binary people, please consult our brief guide on getting transgender coverage right.

If you are interested in speaking with an HRC spokesperson on the record, please email press@hrc.org.

The Human Rights Campaign is America's largest civil rights organization working to achieve equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people. HRC envisions a world where LGBTQ+ people are embraced as full members of society at home, at work and in every community

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