Transgender Safety on Twitter/X

The line between freedom of speech and hate speech has been a hotly contested subject throughout our country’s history. As social media has become a major part of our everyday lives, this conversation has moved online. But what happens when a platform marketing itself as a “public forum” is in fact a privately owned company? Do social media platforms have a responsibility to protect free speech, and do they get to decide for themselves where the line between free speech and hate speech is?

This debate has arisen on the social media platform widely known as Twitter, which was recently renamed to X (for the purposes of this article I will refer to the site as Twitter). In 2018, Twitter implemented a policy against deadnaming or misgendering someone as forms of harassment. Deadnaming is the act of calling a transgender person by a name they no longer go by. Misgendering is the act of using the wrong gender for someone. 

In April of 2023, months after Tesla CEO Elon Musk bought Twitter, the site removed the policy with no formal announcement. This raised alarm bells for transgender activists, who counted this among other signs that the time that Twitter was becoming more dangerous for marginalized communities. A number of people left the social media site in protest of that, and other unpopular policies and rules instated by Musk. 

But recently (as of March 3, 2024), Twitter has reinstated the policy- again with no announcement about the change. Twitter’s rules and policies section about abusive behavior now shows a section titled “Used of Prior Names and Pronouns” where they states that “We will reduce the visibility of posts that purposefully use different pronouns to address someone other than what that person uses for themselves, or that use a previous name that someone no longer goes by as part of their transition. Given the complexity of determining whether such a violation has occurred, we must always hear from the target to determine if a violation has occurred.”

This has been controversial among both supporters of the policy and opponents. Some supporters argue that the policy should not place the burden of reporting abuse on the victims of misgendering and deadnaming. They also complain that the policy limits visibility of said abusive posts, rather than actually removing them. On the other side, opponents of the policy claim that the policy will lead to further censorship and limit freedom of speech on the platform. 

On March 1, 2024, a Twitter user asked Musk to reverse the policy on "pronouns" because it will "lead to censorship on [the] platform." Musk replied, "Looking into it."

While the policy remains on Twitter's website, this is a developing story and could change any day. Please check Twitter's official site for the most recent updates.

Sources: AP News, Twitter Rules and Policies, Elon Musk on Twitter