We analyze anti-LGBTIQ+ hate speech and confront it through ‘Rainbot’

LLYC is marking International LGBTIQ+ Pride Day by releasing its latest report: ‘LGBTIQ+ Hate Speech and Pride in the Digital Conversation’. This publication’s most relevant conclusions include a finding that hate speech targeting the LGBTIQ+community on social media has gained momentum over messages advocating for the support and celebration of their rights. In numbers, hate speech has surged by almost 9.4% in the last four years while pro-LGBTIQ+ messages have dwindled by over 40% in that time.

The Deep Digital team of our consulting firm harnessed big data and artificial intelligence techniques to analyze over 169 million posts on social media in the 12 countries where we currently operate: 10 in the Americas (United States, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Panama and the Dominican Republic) and two in Europe (Spain and Portugal).

Accordingly, here are the promoter and detractor communities broken down by country

With this in mind, and seeking to spur the conversation of pride and positive sentiment around the LGBTIQ+ community, the consultancy has also launched the ‘Rainbot‘ campaign. It is the first bot dedicated to transforming LGBTIQ+ hate tweets into short love poems celebrating diversity. The bot was developed by the consultancy’s creative and Deep Digital teams.

The campaign seeks to bolster the LGBTIQ+ pride discourse against hate speech and raise awareness in society on just how dangerous amplifying harmful messages can be for the LGBTIQ+ community. Rainbot locates tweets containing hateful messages against the LGBTIQ+ community and, with the help of a generative AI, detects the hurtful words and transforms them into short poems in support of the collective, which are then shared so that they can be spread.

In the words of David González Natal, LLYC partner and leader of the report and campaign: “We are concerned about both the growth of hate speech and this metaphorical ‘back to the digital closet’ conversation that celebrates the rights of the community. That’s exactly why LLYC set up the ‘Rainbot’ campaign, an initiative that seeks to draw attention to the problem of the increase of hate messages, but also to contribute directly to reduce it in networks and turn it, through the creative use of the latest technologies, into love, celebration and support. Because companies and brands have a clear role in all this that goes far beyond Pride”.

LLYC and diversity

LLYC is committed to the LGBTIQ+ community and develops proactive diversity plans, including awareness-raising initiatives on bias, inclusive policies and the positioning of its leaders. We previously published the “Companies and LGBTIQ+ diversity in the digital conversation” report in 2022, which analyzed 77.9 million messages from the top 25 companies and their CEOs with the most Twitter followers in each of our markets, with a view to gaining an understanding of the companies’ positioning on LGBTIQ+ diversity-related issues.

The firm currently partners with REDI, Pride Connection, and INCLUI CIEE. In addition, LLYC’s Foundation backs the ‘Transparentes‘ (Transparent) campaign, an initiative that shines the light on the labor barriers faced by the transgender community. The project was awarded a silver statuette at the 2022 Impacte Awards and received recognition as one of Spanish-language magazine Actualidad Económica’s 100 best ideas.