This press release contains information that some readers may find upsetting
Meta failed to address harmful rhetoric on Facebook against the LGBTI community in Hungary by ineffectively applying its own moderation policies, a new Amnesty International briefing shows.
‘It erodes my soul’: Meta’s contribution to anti-LGBTI discourse in Hungary, shows how Meta’s policy decisions, including the weakening of safeguards for high risk groups in January 2025 and the significant reduction in proactive content moderation, have negatively affected the LGBTI community in Hungary.
“Meta contributed to adverse human rights impacts experienced by LGBTI people in Hungary through its policy decisions, and failed to take adequate steps to prevent the resulting harm. Risks to LGBTI people in Hungary were foreseeable and well documented, yet Meta did not adequately act on them,
Daniela Schnidrig, Interim Policy and Advocacy Adviser at Amnesty International’s Big Tech Accountability Team.
One of Meta’s failures was not properly assessing the risks that changes to its global policies posed to the Hungarian LGBTI community. This was despite knowing the hostile political climate and existing legal restrictions on LGBTI-related assemblies, including Pride, and sustained anti-LGBTI rhetoric, including by government and government-aligned actors.
Facebook occupies a uniquely influential position within Hungary’s information environment, reaching over half of the population. LGBTI people interviewed for this research said that sustained exposure to anti-LGBTI content on Facebook caused them anxiety, frustration and feelings of helplessness even in cases where they reported the harmful content.
“Facebook is just another piece in the pile of my anxiety… to them (Meta) users are not people, they are just numbers,” one interviewee told Amnesty International.
Some interviewees temporarily withdrew from the platform and participation in public discussions to protect their mental health. Others self-censored fearing a backlash if they openly expressed their sexual orientation, gender identity, or support for the rights of LGBTI people on the platform. These experiences raise concerns over whether Facebook failed to protect the rights to freedom of expression and non-discrimination, by undermining LGBTI people’s ability to participate in public and civic life on an equal basis with others.
“Over the last decade, members of the Hungarian LGBTI community faced severe smear campaigns and repressive laws from the Orbán government. They also could not express themselves freely on Meta platforms which largely added to their despair” – said Eszter Mihály, LGBTI rights officer at Amnesty Hungary.
Facebook’s central role in debates
As part of the research, Amnesty International also conducted a social listening exercise of public discourse on LGBTI issues across various social media platforms. We found that discussions concerning LGBTI people were characterized by fearmongering, misinformation, and derogatory rhetoric, with Facebook serving as a central forum for these debates.
Representatives of Háttér Society, a Hungarian organization that supports and advocates for the rights of LGBTI people, shared with Amnesty examples of harmful content on Facebook identified between January 2023 and December 2024. They included comments calling for physical violence against LGBTI people, with statements such as “Beat them to death immediately”, “I would shoot this”, “Throw them off the bridge”, and “Death to the extreme genderfluid vermin”.
Other comments used dehumanizing language, referring to LGBTI people as “rats”, “mutants”, “earthworms” or “scum”, while some explicitly advocated the eradication of transgender people. Several other examples pushed narratives portraying LGBTI people as threats to children, public morality, or social order. Some harmful content remained accessible for a period of time after being reported, including content that was still available when checked in March 2026. The continued availability of such content indicates ongoing shortcomings in the consistency and effectiveness of Meta’s enforcement systems.
Interviewees repeatedly encountered anti-LGBTI content despite actively seeking to avoid it by blocking accounts, reporting harmful content, and communicating their disinterest to Facebook.
“Now my feed is really unhealthy. It is not just one or two videos: it’s a series of videos. Now I only can see that. There is rarely any content from friends.
Ádám Kanicsár, an LGBTI activist and journalist, told Amnesty International
Other interviewees also noted that they were shown content they were not interested in.
“Taken together, these findings raise concerns that Facebook’s design may also have increased users’ exposure to harmful anti-LGBTI content. The findings suggest that engagement-driven systems may be contributing to repeated exposure to harmful and divisive content,” said Alia Al Ghussain, the Head of Amnesty International’s Big Tech Accountability Team.
Under the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA), Meta is required to identify and prevent systemic risks related to platform design to ensure that its products are not causing or contributing to human rights abuses. The company must reassess the impact of its January 2025 policy changes in different contexts, and strengthen content moderation and enforcement. This includes an effective complaint mechanism, improve transparency on the enforcements and effectiveness of its policies and the provision of effective remedies to those affected by any harms. The European Commission must robustly enforce the DSA and investigate Meta’s compliance with its obligations. Amnesty International wrote to Meta on 28 July sharing its conclusions. On 11 August, Meta replied stating that, given the scope and detail of the findings presented, it could not share a response within the stipulated timeline.
Background
The research was conducted amid a worsening environment for LGBTI rights in Hungary. Under former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, the government introduced discriminatory laws and policies with government aligned actors portraying LGBTI people as threats to children, families, and Hungarian values. These trends intensified in 2025 and 2026 with new laws restricting LGBTI related gatherings, including Pride events.