Facebook ranks worst for online harassment, according to a global activist survey

Activists from around the world draw attention to the harassment they have faced on Meta’s platforms. More than 90% of land and environmental defenders interviewed by Global Witness, a non -profit organization which also follows the murders of environmental defenders, said they had a kind of online abuse or harassment linked to their work. Facebook was the most cited platform, followed by X, WhatsApp and Instagram.

The global witness and most of the activists he interviewed call Meta and his peers to do more to fight against harassment and disinformation on their platforms. Leaving to get worse, they fear that online attacks can fuel the real risks for activists. About 75% of those questioned said they thought that the online abuses they had suffered corresponded to offline damage.

“These statistics really stayed with me. They were so much higher than what we expected, ”explains Ava Lee, the campaign strategy on digital threats at Global Witness, explains The penis. It is despite a dark result based on previous anecdotal accounts. “It is in a way known for a long time that the experience of climate activists and online environment defenders is quite horrible,” explains Lee.

Global Witness questioned more than 200 people between November 2024 and March of this year that she was able to reach in the same networks that he hits during the documentation of the murders of land and environmental defenders. He revealed that meta-ownership platforms were “the most toxic”. About 62% of participants said they had met abuses on Facebook, 36% on WhatsApp and 26% on Instagram.

This probably reflects how popular meta platforms are in the world. Facebook has more than 3 billion active monthly users, more than a third of the world’s population. But Meta also abandoned her third -party fact verification program in January, which, according to criticism, could lead to more hate speeches and disinformation. Meta went to Crowdsourced approach to moderation of content similar to X, where 37% of the survey participants said they had abuse.

In May, Meta reported a “small increase in the prevalence of intimidation and content of harassment” on Facebook as well as “small increase in the prevalence of violent and graphic content” during the first quarter of 2025.

“It is also somehow irony, which goes towards this type of model of freedom of expression, which we see in fact that it silences certain voices,” explains Hannah Sharpe, senior activist at Global Witness.

Fatrisia Ain leads a local collective of women in Sulawesi, Indonesia, where she says that palm oil companies have seized farmers’ land and contaminated by a river, local villagers could count for drinking water. Facebook publications accused her of being a communist, a dangerous allegation in his country, she says The penis.

The practice of “red marking” – labeling any dissident voice as communists – was used to target and criminalize activists in Southeast Asia. In a very publicized case, an eminent environmental militant in Indonesia was imprisoned under “anti-communism” laws after opposing a new gold mine.

Ain said that she asked Facebook to withdraw several messages to the attacker, without success. “They said it was not dangerous, so they cannot delete it. It is dangerous. I hope Meta would understand, in Indonesia, it’s dangerous,” said Ain.

Other positions have accused Ain of trying to defraud the farmers and have an affair with a married man, whom she considers attempts to discredit who could end up exposing it to more threats in the real world – which has already been hostile to its activism. “Women who are the defenders of my own community are more vulnerable than men … More people harass you with so many things,” she said.

Almost two -thirds of the people who responded to the survey on global witnesses said they feared for their security, including Ain. She was physically targeted on demonstrations against palm oil companies accused of not paying the farmers, she says The penis. During a demonstration outside a government office, the men caught her buttocks and her chest, she said. Now, when she leads demonstrations, older activists surround her to protect her as a safety measure.

In the global witness survey, nearly a quarter of respondents said they had been attacked on the basis of their gender. “There is evidence of the way in which women and women of color, especially in politics experience many amounts of hatred than any other group,” explains Lee. “Once again, we see it playing for defenders … and threats of sexual violence, and the impact that it has on mental health of many of these defenders and their ability to feel safe.”

“We encourage people to use tools available on our platforms to help protect against intimidation and harassment,” said Meta spokesperson Tracy Clayton The penisAdding that the company examines Ain targeted Facebook publications. Meta also underlined its “Chidden Words” functionality which allows you to filter offensive direct messages and comments on your messages and its “limits” function that masks comments on your user publications that do not follow you.

Other companies mentioned in the report, notably Google, Tiktok and X, have not provided answers to the record for requests for The penis. A palm oil company, Ain, did not work on the land of local farmers without paying them, as they are supposed to do so as part of a mandated intelligence regime.

The global witness says that there are concrete stages that social media societies can take to meet harassment on their platforms. This includes the devoted more resources to their content moderation systems, the regular revision of these systems and the invitation of public contributions on the process. The activists interviewed also said that they thought that algorithms that stimulate polarizing content and the proliferation of robots on platforms aggravate the problem.

“There are a number of choices that the platforms could make,” explains Lee. “Resources are a choice, and they could put more money in very good content moderation and very good confidence [initiatives] To improve things.

Global Witness plans to publish its next report on the murders of land and environmental defenders in September. His latest report of this type revealed that at least 196 people had been killed in 2023.