Discrimination on Khan Academy

Hi everyone!

Quinn's reference to my previous comment on the issue is pretty much spot-on when it comes to LGBTQ+ related programs:

While I can’t go into any specific moderation actions that have been taken in relation to this, I can say that we generally don’t consider identity (gender, sexual orientation, race, or ethnicity) to be a controversial issue, and thus that does not fall under the “controversial or divisive topics” as listed in the guidelines. Religion, politics, and personal issues, on the other hand, do fall under the “Off-topic” category and are explicitly mentioned in the guidelines.

I do want to clarify, though, that this policy only applies to programs, and not general discussions on the topic. Debates and discussions about personal identity and LGBTQ+ issues are still considered to be off-topic under videos and programs, so this is something to be avoided. As an example, making a program with a pride flag or LGBTQ+ characters would be okay, but starting a discussion thread debating the religious morality of LGBTQ+ identities or sharing personal information related to the topic would be considered off-topic and would be removed.

As suggested above, if you find any comments that are discriminatory or hateful, you should silently flag the comments so that we can review and remove them. We want our community to be a welcoming place for all individuals, and any discrimination or disrespectful comments (regarding identity or any other topics) will not be tolerated. I believe this is clearly outlined in our Community Guidelines.

Thanks for raising these concerns, and please let me know if you have any additional questions!

Hey there! In situations like these, I believe the best course of action is to flag silently. You can also submit a support ticket about the issue in extreme situations.

I had a similar post during Pride Month. You can see what the KA team said https://support.khanacademy.org/hc/en-us/community/posts/360078504591-Official-Representation. You can also view their news post during Pride Month https://blog.khanacademy.org/celebrating-pride-khan-academy-team-shares-lgbtq-individuals-who-inspire-us/ :D

Khan Academy's guidelines do not allow "Controversial or divisive topics including religion, politics, or personal issues/revealing details that compromise learner privacy." or "Sexual or violent content"

I think that a lot of Khan Academy users are Christian and Muslim homeschooled kids. And given that they are taught homosexuality and transgenderism is bad by their parents/teachers/religion they are going to be against it no matter what. Whether or not it should be a controversial topic is irrelevant. The fact of the matter is that the topic of homosexuality/transgenderism is controversial and may also count as sexual content since it's about sexuality, hence being off-topic and against the guidelines. That being said I believe it is best not to mention it on Khan Academy.

If someone is attacking you then silently (don't respond to the person) flag it for Guardian attention, and they will sort the whole thing out (most likely by deleting the discussion and issuing out warnings to everyone involved).

Edit: Looks like Quinn typed up an answer while I was typing up mine and posted first. Anyways, I agree with what this parent has to say about the matter
https://support.khanacademy.org/hc/en-us/community/posts/360054842872/comments/360014066731

VEXCESS #BringBackBackgrounds, actually, that's not how KA intended the guidelines to be interpreted, I believe. Evan Lewis said in the post I linked to above

While I can’t go into any specific moderation actions that have been taken in relation to this, I can say that we generally don’t consider identity (gender, sexual orientation, race, or ethnicity) to be a controversial issue, and thus that does not fall under the “controversial or divisive topics” as listed in the guidelines. Religion, politics, and personal issues, on the other hand, do fall under the “Off-topic” category and are explicitly mentioned in the guidelines.

So we can see identity is not against the guidelines. In fact, the guidelines might be better interpreted to label homophobia, transphobia, etc as against the guidelines, since those behaviors and opinions are generally, as you said, those who feel that way are likely believe it as part of their religion. 

@Vexcess while it would be best if people could keep certain things off of this site, they should have guidelines for if it does so that people aren't being flagged for being inappropriate if they in some way hint or mention they're LGBTQ+. But yeah you are mostly right.

No, I am trying to tell you the Guardians don't consider it controversial. Regardless of your ideals, opinions, and beliefs, that makes LGBTQIA+ not the problem. As you said, "there are many other places on the internet where one can express their beliefs." Khan Academy doesn't consider identity to be a belief, but they do consider homophobia to be. 

Quinn Hardbrook What you are trying to tell me is that just because something causes controversy doesn't mean it's controversial.

Google defines controversial as "giving rise or likely to give rise to public disagreement". The topic of LGBTQ+ content fits that definition because the whole reason this support post was made is that LGBTQ+ content had given rise to public disagreement. And this isn't the first time it has caused controversy. During Pride Month there were many instances of people disagreeing about the matter.

I as a patriotic American believe that everyone has the right to believe what they want to believe and that no one should be hated for their beliefs. So yeah once again re-iterating if someone is attacking you then just silently flag them. But I think the best way to avoid people attacking each other in the first place is just to avoid controversial topics on Khan Academy. There are many other places on the internet where one can express themselves.

Well said. Thank you for the clarification.