#HateFYP

An international backlash against LGBTQI+ rights is underway, and the Nordic region is not immune: queer organisations across the region report a rise in online hate, harassment and intolerance. Inspired by a 2024 Dublin City University study — which found that brand-new social media accounts registered to teenage boys were served anti-feminist content within 23 minutes — the #HateFYP project set out to answer a pressing question: are social media algorithms feeding Nordic youth anti-LGBTQI+ content, and if so, how fast and how aggressively?

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#HateFYP is a collaboration between the Nordic Digital Rights and Equality Foundation (NORDREF), the Violence Prevention School of Iceland (OFSi), the National Queer Association of Iceland (Samtökin '78) and Transfeminiinit of Finland. In November 2025, our researchers created twelve new accounts on TikTok and YouTube, registered as belonging to 15-year-olds, on twelve phones in Stockholm, Reykjavík and Helsinki. The accounts searched for ordinary youth interests — gaming and young adult fiction — followed by neutral identity-related terms, while the team documented and coded more than 5,000 videos recommended by the platforms' algorithms. The study focuses on content related to trans people, who are the most frequently targeted subgroup within the LGBTQI+ community worldwide.

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The project examines what the recommendation algorithms of the world's largest short-form video platforms actually serve to young users in Sweden, Iceland and Finland: how much of the recommended content concerns trans people, what the nature of that content is, and how the platforms' systems respond to a young user's searches and viewing behaviour. The research also assesses how these dynamics relate to the EU's Digital Services Act, which requires very large online platforms to assess and mitigate systemic risks to minors and to fundamental rights.

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The full report will be published in November 2026, setting out the findings alongside evidence-based recommendations for platforms, regulators and Nordic policymakers on algorithmic transparency, researcher access to platform data, and stronger protections for young users. The report will be presented at a conference in Reykjavík hosted by Samtökin '78, bringing together representatives of social media platforms, LGBTQI+ organisations from across the Nordic region, digital rights organisations, equality authorities and policymakers. Key findings will be available in English, Icelandic, Finnish and Swedish.

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This project is funded by the Nordic Gender Equality Fund (NIKK).