Amnesty International

The EU digital rules already require platforms to find and reduce risks to people - the exact risks faced by LGBTI users documented in Hungary. Amnesty International found no publicly available information that Meta had done this, nor was there enough enforcement action by the EU. Now the EU wants to 'simplify' these rules, weakening the law it is supposed to enforce.

"It erodes my soul." A queer person in Hungary is describing what it's like to open Facebook - a feed of harmful anti-LGBTI content where hitting 'report' changes nothing. This is what daily life becomes for an entire community when a social media platform removes the safeguards that were supposed to protect LGBTI people online. The new Amnesty International research documents it just as the EU moves to 'simplify' its regulation of big tech platforms like Facebook instead of enforcing it.

"It erodes my soul." A queer person in Hungary is describing what it's like to open Facebook - a feed of harmful anti-LGBTI content where hitting 'report' changes nothing. This is what daily life becomes for an entire community when a social media platform removes the safeguards that were supposed to protect LGBTI people online. The new Amnesty International research documents it just as the EU moves to 'simplify' its regulation of big tech platforms like Facebook instead of enforcing it.

In 2025, Meta stripped safeguards from Facebook - ignoring its own Oversight Board's warning. There's no public evidence that Meta assessed what this would mean for LGBTI people. Amnesty International's new research in Hungary documents the impact on the LGBTI community. The EU's digital rules were designed to prevent exactly this harm. The tools exist, but they need to be enforced. The EU must firmly enforce the rules it already has, not weaken them.

You don't have to imagine what weaker digital rules would do - Hungary already knows it. Long before 2025, Facebook was already a hostile space for LGBTI people there. Then, in January 2025, Meta rolled back its safeguards and the extreme anti-LGBTI content on the platform faced even less oversight, with some of it left up even after users reported it.This pattern repeats itself time and time again: the very harm that the EU's Digital Services Act was designed to prevent. And yet, the EU is moving to water it down.

The EU digital rules already require platforms to find and reduce risks to people - the exact risks faced by LGBTI users documented in Hungary. Amnesty International found no publicly available information that Meta had done this, nor was there enough enforcement action by the EU. Now the EU wants to 'simplify' these rules, weakening the law it is supposed to enforce.