Elon’s Twitter is getting even more dangerous and mean.
The social media cesspool, um SITE, has changed its content policy to remove a sentence about targeted misgendering or deadnaming of individuals, that specifically protects the trans community.
Twitter’s policy has been in effect since 2018, prior to Musk’s acquisition. It was instated to
prohibit targeted harassment, including repeated slurs, tropes” or content intended to dehumanise protected categories.
The platform’s content policy used to read,
We prohibit targeting others with repeated slurs, tropes or other content that intends to dehumanise, degrade or reinforce negative or harmful stereotypes about a protected category.
This includes targeted misgendering or deadnaming of transgender individuals.”
The removal of the final section, which refers to deadnaming and misgendering, was described by LGBTQ nonprofit GLAAD as,
the latest example of just how unsafe the company is for users and advertisers alike”.
According to PinkNews, GLAAD president Sarah Kate Ellis said,
This decision to roll back LGBTQ+ safety pulls Twitter even more out of step with TikTok, Pinterest and Meta, which all maintain similar policies to protect their transgender users at a time when anti-transgender rhetoric online is leading to real world discrimination and violence.”
Both TikTok and Pinterest have both explicitly banned misgendering, deadnaming, misogyny and the promotion of ‘conversion therapy’ practices.
Facebook owner Meta has publicly stated that they also prohibit,
violent or dehumanising content directed against people who identify as LGBTQ and remove claims about someone’s gender identity upon their request”.
After Elon bought the platform in October ’22, transphobic rose by at least 1,458 times per day across the remainder of last year. Racist comments also increased to a height of 3,876 times a day.
Musk himself has posted several anti-LGBTQ tweets blaming “communist” universities for his trans daughter’s fraught relationship with him, as well as making false claims about gender-affirming surgery.
A survey in February of 2023 found that 60% of LGBTQ+ organizations and activists have reported an increase in abusive speech since Musk’s takeover.
Twitter has updated its hateful conduct policy to remove protections for trans users. They specifically removed protections from targeted misgendering and deadnaming. While the rules were sparesely enforced, this greenlights further targeting of trans users. pic.twitter.com/I2ANBB9Tr0
— Alejandra Caraballo (@Esqueer_) April 18, 2023
(via PinkNews)
