Elon Musk Removed Transphobic Bullying Policy from Twitter
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Twitter’s “hateful behavior” policy has been amended to remove a provision prohibiting harassment of transgender persons. The rule, which was repealed on April 8, forbade deadnaming, which is the use of a transgender person’s previous name in English.
It was also established that using someone’s wrong gender on purpose was a form of violence.
The decision “is the latest example of how unsafe the company is for both users and advertisers,” said Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of the LGBTI+ organization GLAAD. Ellis observed that anti-transgender speech on the internet supports and promotes real-world prejudice and violence.
The adjustment occurred a day after Twitter changed its policy to clarify how it defines targeted harassment. GLAAD said that the social network is therefore distinguishing itself from platforms such as TikTok , Pinterest, and Meta, which have similar policies in place to protect transgender users.
They Ask Advertisers Not to Ignore the Growing Harassment on Twitter
GLAAD is a member of the #Stop Toxic Twitter alliance, which includes more than 60 groups urging Twitter’s top advertisers to agree to nothing less than a secure environment for their companies. Elon Musk was attending the Possible conference today, specifically a meeting with CEOs from the advertising sector.
Twitter has not totally abolished transgender users’ rights. Your policy still expressly bans attacking or threatening people for reasons such as race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, or age. The clause that specified “the use of wrong names or deadnaming against transgender people” was, nevertheless, forbidden. This form of Twitter harassment may merit the removal of the tweet.
According to organizations such as GLAAD, it is a premeditated blow to the trans community, and the record backs them up. In July 2022, Elon Musk chastised Twitter for suspending the account of controversial psychologist Jordan Peterson, who attacked transgender actor Elliot Page. The tycoon chose to reactivate the profiles of this and other homophobic, transphobic, and sexist individuals after taking over the company.
Hate Runs Free in the Musk Era
Several organizations have confirmed that Twitter is now more accepting of harassment of certain groups that have historically been violated. Since Elon Musk took over the company, for example, anti-Semitic tweets have more than doubled. According to the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, an organization dedicated to monitoring disinformation and hate campaigns throughout the world, misogynistic accounts have increased 69% since last year.
Last month, The Washington Post revealed that Twitter’s new “For You” section was encouraging hate speech. In this situation, it is a side consequence of your algorithm’s design. In principle, this provides consumers more content that is relevant to their specific interests. As a result, accounts that had previously followed extremist profiles started to encounter more bigoted and discriminating posts.
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