During ‘Pride month’ in June 2017, the social media website Tumblr joined several other networks in actively celebrating the LGBTQ+ community. Around the same time, they introduced a new feature to their platform called ‘Safe Mode’ that would control what users see and don’t see. This safe mode when turned on was supposed to hide sensitive content, specifically nudity. It was optional for all users except those under 18.

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Tumblr is not really a safe website for under-18 users. The site is filled with bots that spam pornographic content and users that spread other offensive messages, there is not much that prevents direct person-to-person harassment, especially any aimed at minors. While this feature sounded valid in theory, it did not fully work. Not only did it fail to block some explicit content, but it also ‘filtered out’ almost all LGBTQ+ posts and a few cute cat gifs in the mix.

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Similarly, YouTube, had introduced a ‘Restricted Mode’ on its website and app that can be switched on to view only ‘family friendly’ videos. This system, again painted as an action taken to create a safer online environment for minors, was badly executed. The automated tagging of what is considered appropriate content ended up hiding several LGBTQ related videos, no matter how non-sexual. Searching “gay” with the filter off, resulted in an immense number of videos, including coming-out videos and documentaries with thousands of views. However, with the filter on, most of these videos disappeared, while a lot of videos promoting hate speech or even content featuring Neo-Nazi ideology were not taken down.

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YouTube creators, many of whom make a living through their popularity, use the platform to express themselves or create positive educational videos and suddenly a lot of their videos were ‘restricted’ from being viewed by a large portion of their audience. There was an uproar among these creators and their viewers wherein they rapidly spread information about this problem and trended a hashtag saying YouTube is ‘over’ before the social media website finally took notice and tried to excuse themselves out of it.

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A lot of young social media users come from backgrounds and real-life spaces that do not allow them to be open about their identity and some of these websites are the only places where they can find communities that allow them to be unapologetically queer. The imperfect algorithms that caused this were not just technical difficulties but systems created by people with flawed assumptions.