Fed up with the world’s heteronormative social media platforms shirking all responsibility for keeping queer people safe, Hornet has published a 10-point “Safety Pledge” aimed at ensuring that its platforms are used to keep the LGBTQ+ community safe.
West Hollywood, Calif., June 1, 2022: On the first day of Pride Month 2022, as the LGBTQ community takes stock of the ongoing fight for equality and justice — both our accomplishments and our setbacks — Hornet Networks insists there’s no better time to examine the very important issue of LGBTQ safety on digital platforms. That is why the world’s queer tech company has chosen today to publish a first-of-its-kind pledge for the global tech industry: a 10-point pledge insisting that LGBTQ+ safety will always remain its highest priority.
In addition to flying flags and witnessing the swapping out of corporate logos for new, rainbow-hued iterations, this Pride Month, let’s examine some hard-hitting facts about LGBTQ safety on social media. Hate and harassment on digital platforms is an urgent problem for the queer community. A 2021 report by the Anti-Defamation League found that 64% of LGBTQ+ people have experienced hate or harassment online — a disproportionately higher rate than all other identity groups. We think that’s unacceptable.
As we watch heteronormative social media platforms officially abdicate their duty to protect queer people — even in the face of growing attempts to marginalize us, often proliferated through the reach of technology — Hornet today makes the proactive pledge to use our platforms to keep the LGBTQ+ community safe.
Our Safety Pledge addresses many aspects of what “safety” entails: safety from hate, harassment and misinformation; from abusive moderation policies; from fraud and malicious actors; from threats to our physical and mental well-being; from data breaches and a lack of data transparency; from exploitative technology; and from any entities, including state actors, that do not have our community’s best interests at heart.
Here are the 10 points of the Hornet Safety Pledge. Read more about each point here.
1. We pledge to create and maintain social media platforms where hate, harassment and other abuses have no home.
2. We pledge to ensure our moderation policies are transparent and free from the anti-LGBTQ bias inherent to so many platforms.
3. We pledge to always combat fraud and other abusive behavior that runs rampant on many platforms.
4. We pledge that our users’ physical safety will always remain a top priority.
5. We pledge to keep users’ overall health and well-being an integral part of our legacy.
6. We pledge to always make authenticity a key value of our products, in ways that support the unique needs of our LGBTQ+ community.
7. We pledge to protect our users’ personal data at all costs, and pledge to ensure all our users have both access to and control over their own data and privacy.
8. We pledge to only rely on technology (including algorithms and AI) that does not exploit or unfairly treat LGBTQ people and other vulnerable communities.
9. We pledge to resist any overly broad or otherwise improper government access to our users and their data.
10. We pledge to renounce income from bad actors and queerphobic entities of all kinds, including corporate and government entities.
Hornet’s Safety Pledge was put together based on years of hard work in which the queer tech company has made LGBTQ safety its utmost priority, but it was also crafted with the input and encouragement of many organizations, partners and thought-leaders.
Hornet invites all members of the LGBTQ+ community to join an ongoing conversation about this topic on SPACES, inside the Space “Safety on Social Media.” There we invite all queer people to share their own experiences and concerns, and discuss them with the LGBTQ community at large. See you there!
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About Hornet Networks
Hornet Networks is the world’s queer tech platform, providing a digital home for LGBTQ+ people to connect with each other — anytime, anywhere. Amplifying the radical, affirmative power of the queer community with cutting-edge technology, Hornet serves an LGBTQ+ audience with its two distinct, exciting apps: Hornet and Spaces. Hornet is a queer social network where over 35 million LGBTQ+ users connect over live video, photos, articles, video stories and more. Spaces is a group-chat platform for queer communities to connect over shared interests and discover new ones. Download Spaces on iOS now.
For more information, please visit: hornet.com
Press contact: press@hornet.com
