The Global Suppression of Online LGBTQ+ Speech Continues

A global increase in anti-LGBTQ+ intolerance is having a significant impact on digital rights. As we wrote last year, censorship of LGBTQ+ websites and online content is on the rise. For many LGBTQ+ individuals the world over, the internet can be a safer space for exploring identity, finding community, and seeking support. But with anti-LGBTQ+ bills restricting free expression and privacy to content moderation decisions that disproportionately impact LGBTQ+ users, digital spaces that used to seem like safe havens are, for many, no longer so.

EFF's mission is to ensure that technology supports freedom, justice, and innovation for all people of the world, and that includes LGBTQ+ communities, which all too often face threats, censorship, and other risks when they go online. This Pride month—and the rest of the year—we’re highlighting some of those risks, and what we’re doing to help change online spaces for the better.

Worsening threats in the Americas

In the United States, where EFF is headquartered, recent gains in rights have been followed by an uptick in intolerance that has led to legislative efforts, mostly at the state level. In 2024 alone, 523 anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been proposed by state legislatures, many of which restrict freedom of expression. In addition to these bills, a drive in mostly conservative areas to ban books in school libraries—many of which contain LGBTQ themes—is creating an environment in which queer youth feel even more marginalized.

At the national level, an effort to protect children from online harms—the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA)—risks alienating young people, particularly those from marginalized communities, by restricting their access to certain content on social media. EFF spoke with young people about KOSA, and found that many are concerned that they will lose access to help, education, friendship, and a sense of belonging that they have found online. At a time when many young people have just come out of several years of isolation during the pandemic and reliance on online communities for support, restricting their access could have devastating consequences.

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Similarly, age-verification bills being put forth by state legislatures often seek to prevent access to material deemed harmful to minors. If passed, these measures would restrict access to vital content, including education and resources that LGBTQ+ youth without local support often rely upon. These bills often contain vague and subjective definitions of “harm” and are all too often another strategy in the broader attack on free expression that includes book bans, censorship of reproductive health information, and attacks on LGBTQ+ youth.

Moving south of the border, in much of South and Central America, legal progress has been made with respect to rights, but violence against LGBTQ+ people is particularly high, and that violence often has online elements to it. In the Caribbean, where a number of countries have strict anti-LGBTQ+ laws on the books often stepping from the colonial era, online spaces can be risky and those who express their identities in them often face bullying and doxxing, which can lead to physical harm.

In many other places throughout the world,