LinkedIn, a professional networking and career development social media site that is owned by Microsoft and claims to have over 1 billion users worldwide, has removed its hate speech policy forbidding the deadnaming and misgendering of transgender and nonbinary people. The company quietly made these changes without alerting users on its Trust and Safety blog, but claims that attacks or intimidation toward anyone based on their identity, including misgendering, are still forbidden on its platform. Nevertheless, the LGBTQ+ media watchdog organization GLAAD has criticized the company for its policy changes. Related Report finds social media platforms are failing to protect LGBTQ+ people from hate All the platforms received low safety scores, but one really stood out. The company removed the rule from its examples of prohibited conduct under the platforms Hateful and Derogatory Content section of its Professional Community Policies on July 28, according to PinkNews. However, its policies still forbid content that attacks, denigrates, intimidates, dehumanizes, incites or threatens hatred against individuals based on certain characteristics, including gender identity and race, Out reported.The companys previous policies detailing Harassment and Abusive Content forbade content that negatively targets others on the basis of inherent traits, like race or gender identity. The new version removed mention of race and gender identity but still forbids harassment based on perceived gender. Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. Subscribe to our Newsletter today In a statement to Advocate, the company said it still forbids dehumanizing and hateful language, and added, Personal attacks or intimidation toward anyone based on their identity, including misgendering, violates our harassment policy and is not allowed on our platform.The changes come at a time when social media companies have begun rolling back their own hate speech policies, and the president has ordered all federal government websites to remove any mentions of gender identity. The president and Republicans nationwide have sought to eradicate transgender and nonbinary people from every aspect of civic life by denying their gender identity and forbidding their access to federal documents, public facilities, sports teams, educational programs, the military, immigration services, and medical care that affirm their identities. GLAAD told the aforementioned publication that the modification of LinkedIns policies marks the latest in a disturbing trend that includes the rollback of LGBTQ+ protections in Meta and YouTubes hate speech policies. YouTube removed gender identity and expression from its hate speech policy in April. Meta which owns Instagram, Facebook, and Threads re-wrote its Hateful Conduct policies to allow users to refer to LGBTQ+ people as abnormal or mentally ill.GLAAD also accused LinkedIn of aligning with the far-right Project 2025, which calls for targeting woke culture warriors start[ing] with deleting the terms sexual orientation and gender identity.Yet another social media company [is] choosing to adopt cowardly business practices to try to appease anti-LGBTQ political ideologues at the expense of user safety, GLAAD said. If LinkedIn believes that transgender and nonbinary people should be protected from hate and harassment, they should clearly state this without resorting to confusing doublespeak.Targeted misgendering and deadnaming are among the most frequent and insidious forms of anti-trans hate online, the GLAAD spokesperson added. As transgender and nonbinary people face escalating attacks and extreme dehumanizing rhetoric from the right, including from political leaders and government agencies, social media platforms have a clear responsibility to uphold basic protections.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.