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Facebook, Instagram To Ban Content Promoting LGBT 'Conversion Therapy'
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India, 14 July 2020 10:52 AM GMT | Updated 14 July 2020 11:01 AM GMT
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The ban would apply to the content highlighting or promoting practices that seek to change a person's sexual orientation or gender identity.
Social networking giant Facebook and its image-centric application Instagram would block all the content that is related to LGBT conversion therapy which includes user posts.
The ban would apply to the content highlighting or promoting practices that seek to change a person's sexual orientation from gay or bisexual to heterosexual or gender identity.
Conversion therapy is a pseudo-scientific method, widely discredited and considered as harmful by major medical associations. Studies suggest that it might intensify anxiety and emotional trauma among those treated for something that is not a mental disorder.
According to CNN Business, the decision comes after various LGBTQ activists demanded Facebook to ban the advertisers promoting such therapies on both platforms.
The move also reportedly follows appeals from users to remove an Instagram account used by Core Issues Trust which is an England-based promoter of conversion therapy, and subsequently, a digital campaign to ban such content altogether started on the platform.
"We don't allow attacks against people based on sexual orientation or gender identity and are updating our policies to ban the promotion of conversion therapy services," said Tara Hopkins, Instagram's public policy director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, in a statement.
"We have removed violating content from @coreissuestrusttv. We are always reviewing our policies and will continue to consult with experts and people with personal experiences to inform our approach," she further added.
Conversion therapy practises include electric shock, food deprivation and chemically-induced nausea, the American Medical Association has said in a report.
Such "sexual orientation change efforts" not only don't work, but they may also cause significant distress, the AMA said. It further cited a study which showed that it could lead to depression, anxiety, alienation, and other ill effects.
A total of the fourteen US states have banned the 'conversion therapy', whereas Germany became the first country in the world to outlaw the pseudoscientific practice for the minors in the month of May.
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