Twitter removed a transgender deadnaming or misgendering policy from its hateful content management guidelines. In addition, Twitter’s 2018 policy expressly prohibited calling transgender people by the wrong name or pronouns.
GLAAD discovered this early April hateful content guideline update. The remainder of the policy page is unaltered.
According to the Internet Archive, the policy’s “Slurs and Tropes” section previously stated, “This includes targeted misgendering or deadnaming of transgender individuals.” I removed that line.
Twitter still prohibits gender, gender identity, and sexuality-based attacks. Eliminating a language specifically protecting trans people is part of Twitter’s growing hostility toward LGBTQ+ people.
Since Musk took charge, the company has dismantled its Trust and Safety committee and reinstated banned users, including author Jordan Peterson and conservative satire outlet The Babylon Bee, who harassed transgender people. In addition, GLAAD and Media Matters found that the anti-LGBTQ “groomer” epithet has grown after Elon Musk took charge.
“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,” said GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis.