LinkedIn has removed a clause against misgendering and deadnaming trans users from its hateful content policy, as reported by Open Term Archive. 

For both its policies on “Hateful and Derogatory Content” and “Harassment and Abusive Content”, protections for transgender people and people of colour were either removed or weakened. It is unclear when LinkedIn made the change to its policy. 

A LinkedIn spokesperson told The Advocate that the company remains committed to protecting its users against identity-based attacks and has been regularly updating its policies. The spokesperson stated that any “personal attacks or intimidation” was not permitted on the site. 

Microsoft, the parent company of LinkedIn, has promoted its dedication to protecting its users from hate speech. When asked by The Advocate about their response to this change, they refused to add anything, only drawing back to the response given by LinkedIn’s spokesperson.

Many LGBTQ+ organisations, including GLAAD, criticised LinkedIn’s policy change, citing it as an addition to an already disturbing trend of reducing queer and trans rights. 

These changes come during a continuous rollback of LGBTQ+ rights and diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives by the Trump administration. This has prompted companies, universities, and more in the US to change their policies regarding discrimination and DEI.

GLAAD’s recent report on social media’s protection of queer users found that multiple social media sites were failing to defend their queer users. Sites run by the parent company, Meta, such as Instagram, Threads, and Facebook, had scores below 50 out of 100.

X, formerly known as Twitter, had the lowest score of the six sites examined, with a score of 30. TikTok, however, had the highest score of 56. 

GLAAD found that the recent hate speech policies by Meta had allowed threats against queer users’ safety and that many platforms were failing to uphold their hate speech policies. There were concerns regarding disproportionate suppression of LGBTQ+ content, anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric on platforms leading to real-life harm, and a lack of transparency with social media sites. 

The report recommended restoring and actively enforcing hate speech policies, respecting data privacy, improving transparency, improving moderation, and promoting civil discourse.