January 23, 2024
In January 2022, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published extensive research on the online conversion "therapy" ecosystem. GPAHE looked at searches for terms related to conversion therapy in six countries and in four languages: Australia, Colombia, Germany, Ireland, Kenya in English and Swahili, and in the United States in English and Spanish. Conversion therapy materials were assessed on Google, Bing, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube, and in some cases, PayPal and Alexa. In a separate report, the research also documented those conversion therapy providers that surfaced prominently in online searches. The list of terms used in this research can be found in the appendix. GPAHE's 2022 research was successfully used to educate tech companies on how they were failing users regarding disinformation about conversion therapy. Though some social media companies already supposedly banned or downgraded this material, it was still widely prevalent in 2022 and a significant number of providers had accounts on the major platforms. After GPAHE's report, many providers were deplatformed on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, PayPal and Apple, and the algorithmic rabbit holes, the paths driving searchers to more and more disinformation, were mitigated. Search engines Google and Bing also made improvements to their algorithms. An effort spearheaded by GLAAD but employing GPAHE's 2022 research led TikTok to ban promotion of conversion therapy on the platform, and today the platform seems relatively clear of such material. These were considerable successes in protecting the public from online conversion therapy disinformation. But challenges remain particularly in the context of non-English languages, in the enforcement of the rules banning conversion therapy online, and in the skill with which promoters use social media to spread their dangerous messages while circumventing social media content moderation rules.This 2023 report is a follow up GPAHE's 2022 research and examines the same material in Brazil, Benin, Burkina Faso, the Ivory Coast, Mali, Mexico, South Africa in isiZulu, and the U.S. in English and Spanish. In the case of West Africa, French results were collected, and though local languages were tried, they rarely appeared in search results because of the lack of online material in languages such as Dioula. GPAHE has also added TikTok to its research in some cases.